Hours before President Trump’s first coronavirus task force briefing in months, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. top infectious diseases expert and a mainstay of the task force, told CNN’s Jake Tapper during an interview that he wasn’t invited to the briefing even as the majority of states in the nation are consistently reporting record increases in daily cases and hospitalizations.
“I was not invited, and at this point, I’m assuming I’m not going to be there,” Fauci said, adding that he hasn’t spoken to Trump since the end of last week.
Trump and some Republican allies have been critical of Fauci and other health experts in the past week as they push to continue reopening the economy, with the president on Sunday calling the country’s lead infectious disease doctor “a little bit of an alarmist.”
“People have their opinion about my reaction to things—I consider myself more of a realist than an alarmist,” Fauci said when asked about Trump’s quote.
Regarding what the United States could do to turn around the mass spread of Covid-19 throughout the U.S. following the easing of social distancing policies, Fauci mentioned universal wearing of masks, closing bars and washing hands.
Watch portion of the interview below, via CNN:
Dr. Anthony Fauci says he was not invited to the White House coronavirus briefing today and says the last time he spoke to President Trump was last week https://t.co/b3a787uR2n pic.twitter.com/8uUO72cYKP
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 21, 2020
