No one is more relieved that Donald Trump is no longer president than Dr. Anthony Fauci. The director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical advisor to the president appeared in the CNN special Covid War: The Pandemic Doctors Speak Out over the weekend, where he discussed Trump’s colossal mishandling of the virus that has killed nearly 550,000 Americans since last year.
“The thing that hit me like a punch to the chest was then all of a sudden he got up and said ‘Liberate Virginia, Liberate Michigan,’” Fauci said. “And I said to myself, ‘Oh my goodness. What is going on here?’ It shocked me because it was such a jolt to what we were trying to do.” Trump urged his supporters to “LIBERATE” three states — Minnesota, Michigan, Virginia — from coronavirus restrictions. This was, of course, back when he had access to his Twitter account (Trump has been “permanently suspended” since January). Now he reaches out to far-right extremists through “elegant” press releases.
Fauci also talked about the “best decision” he made:
“When I saw what happened in New York City, almost overrunning of our health care system, it was like, ‘Oh my goodness.’ And that’s when it became very clear that the decision we made on January the 10th – to go all out and develop a vaccine – may have been the best decision that I’ve ever made with regard to an intervention as director of the institute.”
Fauci has said “virtually everybody” will have access to the vaccine by the end of April.
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent @DrSanjayGupta spoke to six leading US health officials about their experiences responding to the coronavirus pandemic over the past year. Here are 10 things they revealed. https://t.co/UaoUhk7zRC
— CNN (@CNN) March 29, 2021
(Via CNN)