Trump officials try to discredit top US infectious diseases expert

Attempts have been made to discredit Dr Anthony Fauci
AFP via Getty Images
Michael Howie13 July 2020

The White House has attempted to discredit America’s leading infectious disease expert as coronavirus continues to surge in the US.

Amid further tensions between Dr Anthony Fauci and the US President, the Trump administration issued a statement expressing concern “about the number of times Dr Fauci has been wrong on things.”

It provided a list of comments made by Dr Fauci, including him saying in January that the virus was “not a major threat”, and another from March when he said that “people should not be walking around with masks”.

Donald Trump last week accused Dr Fauci of making mistakes and said he disagreed with his assertion that the US was still “knee-deep in the first wave”.

Dr Fauci said he had not seen Mr Trump in person in at least two months.

Health officials yesterday reported more than 60,000 new infections in the US for the third day in a row. Hard-hit Florida posted more than 15,000 cases — the highest single-day figure of any state since the pandemic began. The crisis in southern and western states is again driving up the death toll, with the seven-day rolling average for daily reported fatalities rising from under 580 two weeks ago to more than 660.

The World Health Organisation has reported a record 230,000 global increase in confirmed cases over a 24-hour period. Total recorded infections now stand at more than 13 million, including 571,000 deaths.

A ban on alcohol sales was today back in force in South Africa in a bid to reduce trauma patients in hospitals facing a rising volume of Covid-19 cases. President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the move last night, along with the reinstatement of a night curfew to reduce traffic accidents. He also made face masks mandatory in public.

Australia’s worst-hit state of Victoria recorded 177 new cases today — down from 273 yesterday — but a health official warned the disease’s spread may yet worsen. Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said it was too early to say whether the lower count meant the spread was being contained.

Authorities in north-eastern Spain have tightened a lockdown, telling more 140,000 people to only leave home for work or other essential activities. Catalan authorities announced the curbs a week after they had already limited travel to and from the county of El Segria because of an outbreak of the virus.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in