How Dr. Fauci Really Feels About Working With Joe Biden
The year is winding down, and so are the days until President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration. People reports that the event will be largely virtual, mirroring the remote Democratic National Convention held in August. House Majority Whip and South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn, who is also a co-chair of Biden's inaugural committee, told reporters this week, "We are going to discourage anything that could be a spreader. We are going to say to people, please, follow our example. What I'm hopeful is
that we will have the swearing in and, maybe if we can get this virus under control, have a big celebration of this country's liberty on July 4th."
These actions and sentiments will be a special relief to Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who is looking forward to helping the Biden administration tackle the virus
Fauci told the NY Daily News, "I believe that my relationship with President-elect Biden will be on a much more frequent basis until we get this COVID-19 under control, in the sense of dealing with him directly much more. He is very much interested in personally seeing that this gets under control and that's very clear from the conversations I've had with him."
Dr. Fauci has had to spend much of his time correcting myths on social media about the virus and vaccine science, something he hopes to do less of under the new administration. "When you have mixed messages, or when you have a situation where scientists of some repute are questioned, then people get confused, so that's the reason we've got to be very consistent as much as we possibly can," Fauci told the Daily News.
Dr. Fauci is looking forward to helping the Biden Administration tackle the virus
It's no secret that the relationship between Fauci and President Trump has been tenuous, at best. According to the New York Times, the President has called Fauci, a world-renowned infectious-disease expert and advisor to six presidents, an "idiot" and a "disaster." And as The Guardian reports, Trump also threatened to fire him during a November campaign rally in Miami, Florida, prompting rally-goers to chant, "Fire Fauci!"
According to CNN, Trump told campaign staff during a phone call, "People are tired of COVID ... They're tired of it. People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots."
People are tired of COVID. Thankfully, fighting the pandemic — which has killed more than 320,000 Americans (per Business Insider), led to the loss of 22 million jobs (via Forbes), and has placed some 40 million Americans at risk of eviction (per The Aspen Institute) — is a top priority for the Biden Administration. As the Washington Post reports, Biden's three-point plan for tackling coronavirus in his first 100 days prioritizes wearing mask, social distancing, and vaccine distribution.
Dr. Anthony Fauci seems optimistic about Biden's plan, telling CBS News, "At the end of the summer, if we can get the overwhelming majority of the people in this country to accept vaccinations, I think, we will be in good shape towards approaching what all of us would want, a return to some form of normality."