Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious disease, has responded to the White House’s recent efforts to discredit him as the coronavirus crisis worsens across wide swaths of the United States ― calling it “bizarre.”
“Ultimately, it hurts the president to do that,” Fauci told The Atlantic Wednesday. He explained: “I think if you talk to reasonable people in the White House, they realize that was a major mistake on their part, because it doesn’t do anything but reflect poorly on them. And I don’t think that that was their intention.”
Fauci spoke with the outlet this week for a report published just hours after a senior Trump administration official, Peter Navarro, published an op-ed attacking the esteemed doctor. The White House’s communications shop quickly sought to distance Trump from Navarro’s piece, which was headlined, “Anthony Fauci has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on.”
But Navarro’s attack wasn’t an isolated event; it came just two days after a leaked White House memo revealed an effort to use some of Fauci’s statements from the early days of the crisis that contradict current guidance as ammunition against him. President Donald Trump has also shared messages critical of Fauci and other public health experts on Twitter, and he publicly aired his disagreements with Fauci in an interview last week.
What the U.S. needs to do, Fauci said, is “call a time-out” on states’ reopening plans in order “to get everybody on the same team” in regard to masks and crowded spaces. If states take those precautions, Fauci said, “I’ll guarantee you those numbers will come down.” | 
