Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert and a member of the new Administration's team to tackle the pandemic as chief medical adviser, spoke again.
But, unlike the last year in which he did it in a tense atmosphere with former President Donald Trump, this time he does so
feeling backed by the White House.
Fauci confessed on Thursday, the day the new president, Joe Biden, launched an ambitious plan against the pandemic, that it is
"liberating" to
have the support of a government that ensures that "science will always be at the forefront" of its decisions.
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"The idea that you can stop here and talk about what you know, what the evidence is, what science says, and not 'that's it' [...] It is something like
a liberating feeling
," he said. .
While choosing his words carefully, Fauci acknowledged that it was difficult at times to work with Trump, who repeatedly
downplayed the severity of the pandemic
, refused to consistently promote the use of face masks, and often promoted unscientific remedies against the coronavirus, as an antimalarial drug.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, laughs while speaking in the James Brady Press Room at the White House, Thursday, January 21, 2021, in Washington, DC.
AP / Alex Brandon
“I always said everything to the letter, that's why
sometimes I got into trouble
[...] It is clear that there were things that were said, either regarding
hydroxychloroquine
and other things like that, that were really uncomfortable because they were not based on scientific facts, "he said.
He also confessed that he did not like "at all" having to contradict the president.
The
tension between Trump and Fauci has been growing
during the last year;
the White House stopped inviting the epidemiologist to give press conferences on the pandemic.
The former president even threatened to fire Fauci but later realized that he did not have the authority to do so, because his is not a political position, but a civil service position: that of
director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases
(NIAID, in English).
Biden is the seventh president of the United States that Fauci, who has led the NIAID since 1984 and is one of the most respected figures in the nation's scientific community, has advised.
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Under the new Administration, Fauci committed to being "completely
transparent, open and honest
."
"If things go wrong, we are not going to point the finger, but correct them and that
everything we do is based on science and evidence,
" he reiterated.
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Fauci had been awake since before dawn to participate in the virtual meeting with the World Health Organization (WHO), to which
Biden reinstated the United States
the day before, after Trump withdrew the country because he was upset by the way in that it acted with China in the early days of the pandemic.
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The expert told the WHO that Washington will join his initiative to deliver coronavirus vaccines to poor countries.
In the afternoon, the doctor stood next to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House as they unveiled a series of executive orders intended to reduce the spread of the virus, which is closely claiming life. than 4,000 Americans daily, as well as to bolster the nation's slow vaccine distribution program.
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White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Fauci and other public health officials will make more regular public appearances to discuss the coronavirus situation after the Trump Administration refused to do so in its final months.
While waiting for the arrival of the president, the doctor acknowledged to reporters that it was a long day and pointed out that, although he would rather go for a run, he planned to walk a few kilometers on Thursday night.
With information from AP and Efe, NBC News.