President Donald Trump is upset that Dr Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert, is getting the favourable media coverage that he feels he deserves for his role in managing the coronavirus pandemic in the US.
“Something how Dr Fauci is revered by the lamestream 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,” Mr Trump tweeted on Sunday.
“Gee, could this just be more Fake News?” he said.
Dr Fauci is a member of the White House’s coronavirus task force but he and Mr Trump were often found publicly disagreeing with each other throughout the pandemic. US President-elect Joe Biden has already named Dr Fauci as one of the members of his health team for tackling the pandemic.
Their disagreement involved issues such as wearing of masks to control the spread of Covid-19. In fact, prior to the 3 November elections, Mr Trump, during an election rally in Miami, had even hinted at firing Dr Fauci once the elections are over after the crowd chanted for him to do so.
The president’s outburst came after the epidemiologist, in a new programme, disputed the US president’s claim about the exaggeration of the death toll due to coronavirus.
The president had tweeted: “The number of cases and deaths of the China virus is far exaggerated in the United States because of [Centers for Disease Control & Prevention] 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!”
Dr Fauci told the ABC News: “All you need to do is go out into the trenches, go to the hospitals, see what the healthcare workers are dealing with, they are under very stressed situations.”
“In many areas of the country, the hospital beds are stretched, people are running out of beds, running out of trained personnel who are exhausted right now. That’s real, that’s not fake, that’s real.”
Since the start of the pandemic, the US has recorded over 20 million cases including over 345,000 deaths – highest in the world. It has already started administering vaccines.
