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America’s top physician is done being Dr. Nice Guy.
Dr. Anthony Fauci is done with the Mr. Nice Guy shtick.
To be America’s top infectious disease specialist right now must be maddening. This pandemic is like an overflowing sink. But instead of trying to turn off the valves, Donald Trump insists water isn’t real as he sprays the rest of the kitchen with a firehose.
That’s the deranged part. Not only has Trump overseen the most catastrophic public health failure in American history, he’s actively made it worse. A study from Stanford University published Friday analyzed the community impact of 18 Trump rallies. Researchers concluded his Election Infection Tour has resulted in more than 30,000 cases and 700 deaths.
Trump might as well be injecting his fans with Ebola.
Or as Colin Jost noted on SNL’s “Weekend Update” in response to the study and President Superspreader: “That means he’s officially killed more people across the Midwest than Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy combined.”
It’s bananas. If this election were six months away, Trump wouldn’t get a single vote because all of his supporters would be dead. I will never get how or why he thought he could shrug off a PANDEMIC. It’s as if he refuses to look up while standing in the darkening shadow of an incoming asteroid.
Trump keeps saying his country is “rounding the corner.” It’s actually on a merry-go-round powered by his lethal incompetence. I don’t get it. More important, Dr. Fauci doesn’t get it.
“We’re in for a whole lot of hurt,” he told the Washington Post, in a candid interview published on Saturday that felt like a declaration of war against the Trump administration. “It’s not a good situation. All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly.”
Fauci also criticized Dr. Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist and frequent guest on Fox News who has become Trump’s most trusted coronavirus whisperer.
“I have real problems with that guy,” said Fauci, in a rare flash of undiplomatic candour. “He’s a smart guy who’s talking about things that I believe he doesn’t have any real insight or knowledge or experience in. He keeps talking about things that when you dissect it out and parse it out, it doesn’t make any sense.”
Nope. Pushing for herd immunity or pooh-poohing masks does not make sense. Then again, consulting a radiologist with no background in infectious disease during a pandemic makes about as much sense as taking your car to a florist when the “Check Engine” light comes on.
Let’s get real: A Talking Elmo speaking in tongues makes more sense than Atlas.
But even if this White House still does not have a plan for dealing with COVID-19, it does have a blueprint for punishing apostates. Soon after the Post story, the White House fired back at Fauci, calling his remarks “unacceptable” and “breaking with all norms,” which is pretty rich.
Meanwhile, Atlas, who may or may not have been pounding back Jack Daniels, tweet-taunted Fauci on Saturday night with a gestalt barrage of hashtags: “#Insecurity #EmbarrassingHimself #Exposed #CantThrowABall #NoTimeForPolitics.”
The #CantThrowABall jab is a reference to Fauci’s ceremonial first pitch at a Washington Nationals game this year. Yes, he missed home plate by a country mile. No, I have no clue why Trump and Atlas are offended because Fauci does not have the fastball location of a major league pitcher.
I didn’t choose my doctor because she can spike a volleyball or do backflips.
Whatever. Fauci #CantThrowABall. I’ll give you that, Dr. Atlas. Bravo.
But this weekend, Dr. Fauci #ThrewAPunchThatLanded.
With D-Day — Doom or Democracy, take your pick — less than 48 hours away, the cold war between Anthony Fauci and Donald Trump just got red hot. Fauci also told the Post Joe Biden is, to his mind, taking the pandemic “seriously from a public health perspective.”
Think about that. A member of Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force is sending smoke signals to voters on during the final weekend: If you want to get out of this mess, Biden is your best bet.
Fauci told the Washington Post that Joe Biden is, to his mind, taking the pandemic “seriously from a public health perspective”
If Trump loses, he will have plenty of time to reflect on the mistakes he made as a one-term flame-out. One of the biggest was kicking Fauci to the curb like one of his ex-wives. The top doc has headed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, advising six presidents while also serving as the chief of the Laboratory of Immunoregulation.
Governments around the world have called upon his expertise for decades.
But since Trump doesn’t care about that boring stuff, here’s something that should give him pause: The Independent published an exclusive poll on Sunday that found Fauci is “the only person associated with Donald Trump who has seen their approval rating rise …”
Trump’s approval rating has always been underwater. Anyone linked to him also tanks.
But Fauci is now riding a tsunami of elbow bumps and global esteem.
Heading into Tuesday’s election, America feels like it’s trapped in a cinematic hybrid of “Contagion” and “Idiocracy.” It never had to be this way. All Trump had to do was stop hogging the spotlight and listen — actually, listen — to what science and the experts advised.
Instead, he commenced hostilities with Dr. Anthony Fauci for no good reason at all.