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Fauci Calls It 'Liberating' To 'Let The Science Speak' With Biden As President
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious diseases expert, termed it “a liberating feeling” to “let the science speak” now that a new president has taken office.
Joining a White House press briefing on Thursday after a long hiatus, Fauci said it had been “uncomfortable” to hear former President Donald Trump and others make pronouncements about COVID-19 ― including touting unproven treatments ― that were “not based on scientific fact.”
“I take no pleasure at all in being in a situation of contradicting the president,” Fauci said, referring to Trump. As the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, he had served on Trump’s coronavirus task force, but as the pandemic dragged on he often pushed backagainst the former president’s lies and exaggerations. Trump’s chagrin became obvious and eventually Fauci ceased to be part of White House briefings on the disease.
“You didn’t feel you could actually say something and there wouldn’t be any repercussions about it,” Fauci said of working under the Trump administration.
With newly inaugurated President Joe Biden pledging candor about his efforts to combat COVID-19, Fauci said that in contrast, “The idea you can get up here and talk about what you know, what the evidence and what the science is, and know that’s it … it is somewhat of a liberating feeling.”
When a reporter characterized Fauci as having “joked” about the differences between the Trump and Biden administrations, the doctor quickly corrected him. “You said I was joking about it. I was very serious about it. I wasn’t joking,” he said.
REPORTER: You've joked a couple times about the difference between the Trump and Biden administrations. Do you feel less constrained?
FAUCI: You said I was joking about it. I was very serious. I wasn't joking. pic.twitter.com/nyH4ow1zVj— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 21, 2021
In the early days of the pandemic, Fauci had...
