It has been two months since Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief infectious disease expert at the White House, has been able to brief President Trump on the coronavirus pandemic.
In fact, Fauci says, the two haven’t even spoken to each other in a month.
Fauci told Financial Times in a dark, revealing interview that he last saw Trump on June 2. Lately, he’s had to merely pass messages along to the President. And while he’s “sure” the messages reach Trump’s desk, the President clearly isn’t heeding his warnings, as the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. continues to get worse.
“I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say we have a serious ongoing problem, right now, as we speak,” Fauci told Financial Times. “What worries me is the slope of the curve. It still looks like it’s exponential.”
Part of the reason things have gotten so bad, Fauci explained in the interview, is that states lifted restrictions or allowed businesses to open before the coronavirus had become manageable in the area.
“I think we have to realize that some states jumped ahead of themselves,” Fauci said. “Other states did it correctly.”
But while Trump has urged states to reopen, is currently pushing for schools to resume in-person classes in the Fall, and otherwise flouted Fauci’s repeated warnings to government leaders, Fauci deflected when asked if Trump was “wrong.”
Instead, Fauci just said that’s the “famous question.”