Dr. Anthony Fauci said he hasn’t personally briefed President Trump on the coronavirus in two months.
Dr. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, says he hasn’t seen Trump in person since June 2 and had not briefed him since May.
Fauci told the Financial Times he’s passed notes on the pandemic to Trump’s staff and he’s sure the president receives his messages.
President Trump has been critical of Dr. Fauci’s opinions on the coronavirus.
In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday, Trump said suggested he’d lost confidence in Dr. Fauci because he “made a lot of mistakes”.
Dr. Fauci is on record saying Americans should not wear face masks because masks do not prevent the transmission of the coronavirus.
“There’s no reason for people to be walking around with a mask,” Fauci said back in March.
Dr. Fauci criticized Trump for saying 99% of people in the world who are infected with the virus “automatically get better.”
Fauci said the president was incorrect in claiming 99% of coronavirus cases are harmless.
“I’m trying to figure out where the president got that number,” Fauci said. “What I think happened is that someone told him that the general mortality is about 1%. And he interpreted, therefore, that 99% is not a problem, when that’s obviously not the case.”
The fatality rate, or deaths divided by confirmed cases, is about 4.3%, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University.
But Johns Hopkins didn’t take into account the millions of Americans who are infected with the virus but have not been tested yet.
According to USA Today, the death toll could be much lower if cases are undercounted because of lack of testing.
