Speculating Dr. Fauci’s Future

Politics | April 23, 2020, Thursday // 22:14
Bulgaria: Speculating Dr. Fauci’s Future Washington Post

 

US President Donald Trump’s twitter account has been at the crux of many a controversy ever since the real estate mogul turned his hand to politics. So, it comes as no surprise that the latest stir, which pertains to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s future, can be traced back to a seemingly innocuous retweet by the President of the United States (POTUS).

Tensions began to boil over within the White House after reports came out alleging the POTUS had ignored a series of warnings from experts about the novel coronavirus as far back as January.

Dr. Fauci, the head of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, added fuel to the fire in a CNN interview with Jake Tapper, in which he appeared to inadvertently agree with those damming reports by admitting lives might have been saved had the government acted faster. The public health expert added that there had been ‘pushback’ against lockdown measures in February.

Fauci said: “I mean, obviously, if we had, right from the very beginning, shut everything down, it may have been a little bit different. But there was a lot of pushback about shutting things down back then.”

Trump aired out his frustration promptly on social media and issued a series of tweets on the very same day, one of which sparked initial speculation that Trump might actually be set on firing Dr. Fauci.

The POTUS retweeted a post from a little known Republican congressional candidate, DeAnna Lorraine, that boasted the hashtag ‘Fire Fauci.’ By the end of the day, the hashtag was trending.

Lorraine wrote, “Fauci is now saying that had Trump listened to the medical experts earlier he could've saved more lives. Adding, “Fauci was telling people on February 29th that there was nothing to worry about and it posed no threat to the US public at large. Time to #FireFauci.”

Lorraine’s post was in reference to an interview Dr Fauci gave to Fox News, in which he played down the threat of the virus based on the information China shared at the time and suggested no lifestyle change was necessary in any event because the United States had sophisticated tools at its disposal.

Trump retweeted her post with a foreword message, “Sorry Fake News, it’s all on tape. I banned China long before people spoke up. Thank you @OANN.”

 

Although the next day the White House rejected the notion the US President was working up to sack Dr Fauci, even going as far as issuing a statement to the contrary, “This media chatter is ridiculous. President Trump is not firing Dr Fauci.” It did little to quell the chatter.

In fact, bookmakers went to press with political proposition odds on who the POTUS might fire next, with Dr Fauci leading the dubious category as the short-odds-on-favorite.

Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, who has been at loggerheads with the federal government more often than not during the coronavirus outbreak, seemed to dispel this notion when directly questioned about it.

“As crazy as things get in this world, I can’t imagine that would ever happen,” said Cuomo on the subject of Trump potentially firing Dr Fauci. Cuomo added his praise of Dr Fauci in the American response, saying he was ‘great’ and that he believed Americans trusted his advice.

“I think Dr Fauci is great,” Cuomo said. “I think Americans trust him.”

Fauci, who is the leading expert in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, himself seems confident of his tenability. Suggesting that while he and the president might not always see eye-to-eye on issues, he has the president’s ear.

“He goes his own way. He has his own style. But on substantive issues, he does listen to what I say.”

The United States is now leading in all stats related to the novel coronavirus. It has the most confirmed cases of COVID-19 and the highest death toll as a result of coronavirus of any country around the world.

President Donald Trump is looking at ways to ease restrictions and gradually reopen the American economy, a pressing and challenging prospect faced by most governments today, all of which are keen to reconcile the need to keep the public safe with the push to get the wheels of economy churning again.

 

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