Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, said the reason why he hasn’t been on TV much lately might be because of his “reputation” for “speaking the truth at all times.”
“I have a reputation, as you probably have figured out, of speaking the truth at all times and not sugar-coating things,” he said in a Friday interview with the Financial Times. “And that may be one of the reasons why I haven’t been on television very much lately.”
Fauci, who used to be a fixture during the White House coronavirus task force’s daily press briefings, told FT that he hasn’t seen the president since June 2. In late June, Fauci did make an appearance at a press briefing to warn Americans, and particularly those who are younger, that they have a “societal responsibility” to avoid getting infected with COVID-19, but his TV appearances have notably been less frequent since early May.
In his interview with FT, Fauci also countered the president’s claim during a July 4 speech that 99% of COVID-19 cases are “totally harmless.”
“I’m trying to figure out where the president got that number,” Fauci said. “What I think happened is that someone told him that the general mortality is about 1 percent. And he interpreted, therefore, that 99 percent is not a problem, when that’s obviously not the case.”
He also stressed how severe an impact the coronavirus had. “I have never seen a virus or any pathogen that has such a broad range of manifestations,” Fauci said. “Even if it doesn’t kill you, even if it doesn’t put you in the hospital, it can make you seriously ill.”