On Thursday, Dr. Anthony Fauci returned to the White House briefing room to address reporters regarding the coronavirus pandemic. He’s done so dozens of times since the pandemic started in March, but this was the first time without Donald Trump as president. Immediately, the energy of the conversation with reporters took on a different tone. At one point, Fauci was asked what felt different about working with Joe Biden as opposed to Trump.
Fauci responded that it has been incredibly “freeing” to work with Biden, who has focused on science-based solution to the pandemic. At another point, Fauci was asked how long he thought it would be before clinics in the US had vaccines available for everyone. He noted that this new administration would not guess, so he would refrain from taking a wild stab at that question.
Fauci Able to Speak his Mind
“I can tell you, I take no pleasure at all in being in a situation of contradicting the President,” Fauci told reporters of his time working under Trump. Many have noted that Fauci is one of the few holdovers from the prior administration, the rare official to work with both Trump and Biden.
“The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know, what the evidence, what the science is — let the science speak. It is somewhat of a liberating feeling,” Fauci told reporters.
Fauci, 80, has served under seven US presidents during his long tenure as the top infectious disease expert in the United States. His recent moments in the spotlight have raised his profile, but he was already well-known in Washington.
Bad Blood with Trump?
Early in the pandemic, Fauci was commonly seen appearing on-camera with Trump nearby during briefings from the White House Press Room. As time went on, Fauci and the president differed greatly on how to approach the pandemic, he was sidelined and kept away from cameras as the administration focused less and less on the public health crisis.
Typically, Trump insisted that while he and Fauci disagreed on what approach to take, he still respected the infectious disease expert. At one rough point during the administration Trump considered firing Fauci, this never came to pass. Many suspect this is because Fauci was never partisan or openly disparaging of Trump. Instead, he was simply adamant about following the science and attacking the pandemic with whatever tools modern science made available.
