Why we must keep Dr. Fauci at the podium during this coronavirus fight
As living under quarantine conditions during this coronavirus pandemic has turned my web surfing into more of an alternative universe than ever, a significant question has been popping into view in recent days: “Where’s Dr. Fauci?”
Yes, the cult of admirers surrounding Dr. Anthony Fauci, renowned immunologist, is not only thriving but seeking his advice more desperately than ever — even as some among President Donald Trump’s supporters on the far-right fringe aren’t.
The ongoing sport of catching Trump’s falsehoods — more than 16,000, so far, in The Washington Post’s Fact Checker’s database — has taken on a morbidly serious tone as truthfulness in a pandemic can make the difference between life and death.
In response, the president holds daily news briefings that are well worth watching, in my view, as long as Fauci is there. My informal survey of similarly cocooned friends, relatives and workmates finds general agreement. If Fauci’s not there, they say, you might as well turn it off.
Of course, in our politically and culturally polarized society I have to remember that I live in a silo comprised disproportionately of liberals and moderates who treat anything Trump says with the skepticism of the old Chicago City News Bureau’s slogan: “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”
But in the current national emergency, even prominent Republicans such as Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio and Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland sounded alarms over Trump’s “wish” to have the economy back up and running by Easter. Too soon, they said.
Fauci agreed. “You’ve got to be realistic,” he told CNN’s Chris Cuomo, “and you’ve got to understand that you don’t make the timeline, the virus makes the timeline.”
And Fauci kept his job for another day, although significantly he made the statement in a CNN interview, not during the president’s regular briefings. He and Trump denied reports of a rift, and Fauci continued to grant numerous interview requests. But his lowered profile seemed to reflect reports that the president was annoyed by his growing popularity, which as you may recall, has spelled the end for other Trump appointees.
Unlike most of them, though, Fauci was inherited. He’s been the “Mr. Wizard” or, for you millennials, the Bill Nye the Science Guy of contagions since he became director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 1984, the middle of President Ronald Reagan’s years in office.
He expresses the qualities that just about everybody wants a good doctor to have. He has the bedside manner that can deliver the most terrible news in a calming, easily understood way, even when it directly contradicts his boss who, in this case, does not take contradiction easily.
But Trump himself cast a troubling cloud of doubt on that sensible course this past week as reports came out saying the president has become annoyed as Fauci has grown bolder in correcting his falsehoods about the spread of the coronavirus.
And, reports The Washington Post, despite his valued service under presidents from both parties, Fauci has come under increasing — and unfair — fire from paranoids on the right fringe who long have fueled a conservative war against science and so-called “deep state” conspiracies.
For example, Peter Barry Chowka, who has been retweeted by Trump on other occasions, recently called Fauci a “Deep-State Hillary Clinton-loving stooge.” Others have hint-hint-hinted that perhaps Fauci himself had a hand in creating what Trump, until recent days, called “the Chinese virus.”
Such is the low quality of ideological discourse into which some would drag Fauci or anyone else who refuses to subscribe to their wing-nut ideology.
But whether Trump acknowledges it or not, he’s better off having Fauci inside his pandemic team’s tent than outside. Much to my surprise, Trump has experienced a small improvement in his approval rating, which hit record highs in surveys released this past week by Gallup (49%), Fox (48%), Monmouth University (46%) and Pew (45%).
Those numbers for his handling of the coronavirus outbreak are still slightly better than those he has received for his job performance over all, which have yet to top the 50% mark. But they’re a lot better than the numbers he would have if he ends our national social distance too soon.
Remember, Mr. President, the virus sets the timeline.