Fauci blasts Trump’s claims on COVID-19
‘Those are ... real people and real deaths’
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, blasted President Trump’s claims Sunday that the number of coronavirus deaths and cases in the U.S. has been “far exaggerated.”
“All you need to do … is go into the trenches, go into the hospitals, go into the intensive care units and see what is happening. Those are real numbers, real people and real deaths,” Fauci said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Earlier on Sunday, Trump claimed in a tweet that case numbers related to the outbreak have been “far exaggerated” because of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s, “ridiculous method of determination compared to other countries, many of whom report, purposely, very inaccurately and low. ‘When in doubt, call it Covid.’ Fake News!”
Asked about the president’s comments, Fauci said, “To have 300,000 cases in a given day, and between two and 3,000 deaths a day is just terrible.
“There’s no running away from the numbers,” he added. “It’s something that we absolutely got to grasp and get our arms around and turn that inflection down by very intensive adherence to the public health measures, uniformly, throughout the country, with no exception.”
Trump also complained that Fauci has been “revered” by the news media, “as such a great professional, having done, they say, such an incredible job, yet he works for me and the Trump Administration, and I am in no way given any credit for my work. Gee, could this just be more Fake News?”
Fauci said on ABC’s “This Week” that President-elect Joe Biden’s pledge to administer 100 million shots of the vaccine within his first 100 days in office is achievable.
“The goal of vaccinating 100 million people in the first 100 days is a realistic goal,” Fauci said.
Fauci said he has seen “some little glimmer of hope” after 1.5 million doses were administered in the previous 72 hours, an average of about 500,000 per day. That’s a marked increase in the pace of vaccinations that brings the total to about 4 million, a level still short of the country’s original goal of 20 million by the end of 2020.
U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said the 20 million-dose goal hasn’t been reached because local health departments and medical facilities had to stay focused on testing to handle a surge in cases.
“I don’t want anyone to think I’m being Pollyannish here. There’s what we delivered, and we hope that those will be translated into vaccinations. That has not occurred to the way that we would like,” Adams said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”