Fauci Says Virus Testing Is Too Slow While Trump Calls It the ‘Best Ever’

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. needs to improve its coronavirus testing to deliver results within two days, said Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease official, hours after President Donald Trump boasted that U.S. testing is the “best ever.”

“We need to do better,” Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Wednesday about testing in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s David Westin. “No excuses. It needs to be done.”

Fauci’s testing comment was among areas where his remarks clashed with statements by Trump. Fauci urged people to listen to medical experts about drugs like hydroxychloroquine, which Trump has touted to treat the virus despite a U.S. warning about its use. Fauci said schools in some parts of the country shouldn’t yet reopen even as Trump says they should.

The gulf between comments by the two men comes after Trump has repeatedly made disparaging remarks about Fauci, along with the White House detailing statements by the scientist that later turned out to be wrong. One of Trump’s economic advisers, Peter Navarro, published an op-ed criticizing Fauci last month. Trump said Navarro spoke for himself and shouldn’t have done that.

Fauci has regularly warned about the severity of the pandemic, which has killed over 156,000 people in the U.S. with nearly 5 million confirmed cases, while Trump has downplayed it.

Fauci and other public health officials have said that faster test results are needed to prevent the spread of the virus. Waiting days for results means many people may unwittingly spread the virus before learning that they’re positive and take precautions.

Fauci said the U.S. still has too many instances where testing results take days or a week to come back. “I can’t credibly defend that and say it’s a good thing, because it’s not,” he said. He said the goal is to have at least 95% of test results returned with a week.

‘Nobody’s Even Close’

By contrast, earlier Wednesday morning, Trump praised testing in the U.S., telling Fox News that “50% of the country is short-term testing. We’re going to more, but you have to remember, we did 61 million tests. The next country is -- like Germany is at three. India with 1.5 billion people is at 11. We’re at 61. Nobody’s even close to us in testing.”

“Our testing is the best ever, the best in the world,” Trump said. “And everybody talks about it, other than some of the fake news, they don’t like talking about it.”

Trump has cited the number of tests administered in the U.S. to defend his handling of the pandemic. He has falsely asserted that the number of tests administered is the reason for increases in virus caseloads.

Fauci didn’t criticize the president during the Bloomberg Television interview, but said there is a “consistent message right now” from the administration since Trump began encouraging people to wear masks, though the president rarely wears one himself. Fauci said a national mask requirement could backfire by spurring a pushback.

Medical Experts

Fauci said that on medical questions, Americans should listen to medical experts. “If you’re talking about a medical question, listen to the medical experts,” Fauci said. He cited hydroxychloroquine -- the drug tauted by Trump -- as an example of an areas where health experts are unanimous.

Fauci struck an upbeat tone about the potential for a vaccine, even if it only meets the minimum threshold for approval, and said he’s confident people can safely vote in November if they wear masks and maintain six feet distance with others.

“We’ve got to all pull together,” Fauci said, encouraging people to wear masks, stay outdoors when meeting people, avoid large crowds and wash their hands often. “We can do that if everybody universally does those fundamental public health things.”

In the Fox interview, Trump struck a different tone, saying the virus would eventually “go away -- like things go away.”

“This country has done a great job on the corona,” Trump said.

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