Dr Anthony Fauci ‘gets his groove back’ as he admits ‘liberating’ feeling of working under Joe Biden

Dr Anthony Fauci has spoken of “the liberating feeling” of being backed by a science-supporting administration after four years under former president Donald Trump.

Joe Biden pledged to make Dr Fauci his chief medical adviser when he took office and the 80-year-old scientist was immediately in motion as Mr Biden - who has rejoined the World Health Organisation - got to work as the 46th US President.

At his first press conference under Mr Biden, Dr Fauci looked visibly buoyed as he admitted life under the new regime was "liberating".

He told reporters gathered at the White House that it had been difficult to stand besides Mr Trump, who repeatedly played down the severity of the pandemic, refused to consistently promote mask-wearing and often touted unproven scientific remedies, including  hydroxychloroquine - a drug experts had warned could be dangerous.

One reporter asked him: “You’ve joked a couple of times today about the difference you feel in being the spokesperson for this issue in the administration versus the previous one… Can you talk a little bit about how free, how much different do you feel?"

But Dr Fauci laughed: "You say they were jokes - they weren't. I was serious!"

He went on: "It's very clear that there were things that were said - be it regarding hydroxychloroquine and other things like that - that was uncomfortable because they were not based on scientific fact.

“I take no pleasure at all of being in a situation of contradicting the president. It was really something you didn't feel you could actually say something and there wouldn't be repercussions.”

He added: "The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know, what the evidence, what the science is, and know that's it, let the science speak... it is somewhat of a liberating feeling."

He also vowed that everything from now on “would be based on science and evidence.”

Many were quick to comment on how different Dr Fauci appeared during the briefing. 

Nicole Wallace, a former White House communications director, told viewers of the MSNBC network: “It seems like this briefing will forever be remembered as the one where Tony Fauci got his groove back.”

Twitter users agreed, with some describing him as a “free elf”, referencing when house-elf Dobby is released from servitude in the Harry Potter books.

As part of his busy schedule, Dr Fauci was up at 4am for the virtual meeting with WHO, which Mr Biden had rejoined the previous day. Mr Trump withdrew the US from the group last year out of anger over how it dealt with China in the early days of the pandemic.

Dr Fauci told the group that the United States would join its effort to deliver coronavirus vaccines to poor countries.

In the afternoon, the doctor stood alongside Mr Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the White House as they unveiled a series of executive orders aimed at slowing the spread of the virus, which is killing more than 4,000 Americans a day, as well as bolstering the nation’s sluggish vaccine distribution programme.

Joe Biden's Oval Office - In pictures

Inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States
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In his return to the briefing room, Dr Fauci joked with reporters, seemingly far more relaxed than at any point last year.

“One of the things that we’re going to do is to be completely transparent, open and honest,” he told reporters. “If things go wrong, not point fingers, but to correct them. And to make everything we do be based on science and evidence.

“That was literally a conversation I had 15 minutes ago with the president and he has said that multiple times.”

Asked if he would like to amend or clarify anything he said during the Trump presidency, Dr Fauci insisted he had always been candid, noting wryly: “That’s why I got in trouble sometimes.”

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