Mark Meadows Calls Fauci’s 1918 Flu Comparison ‘Irresponsible’
Mark Meadows Calls Fauci’s 1918 Flu Comparison ‘Irresponsible’
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump’s chief of staff criticized Anthony Fauci for comparing the current coronavirus outbreak to the 1918 flu pandemic, after reprimanding another top White House adviser for publicly attacking Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert.
“He suggested that this virus was worse than, or as bad as, the 1918 flu epidemic,” Mark Meadows said during a Fox News interview Thursday. “I can tell you that not only is that false, it’s irresponsible to suggest so.”
Fauci said Tuesday at an event sponsored by Georgetown University that the coronavirus is a “pandemic of historic proportions” and “when history looks back on it, will be comparable to what we saw in 1918,” when influenza killed tens of millions of people worldwide. Covid-19 has so far killed more than 588,000 people worldwide, and more than 138,000 in the U.S., according to statistics compiled by Bloomberg.
“I hope we don’t approach that with this, but it does have the makings of possibly approaching that in seriousness,” Fauci said, according to the Washington Post, while adding he expects the coronavirus death rate to rise, but not to levels seen in April and May.
Fauci said earlier Thursday in a discussion with Facebook, Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg that his comparison to 1918 was about the historic importance of the outbreak, and not the death count. “They’re not comparable in that way at all in severity,” Fauci said.
Meadows acknowledged Fauci’s clarification, but said “that doesn’t excuse what happened.”
Meadows took a swipe at Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, after chiding White House trade adviser Peter Navarro for writing an unauthorized critique of Fauci that was published by USA Today. “It’s not appropriate to express your opinion in an op-ed, whether it’s deeply held or not and I think Peter Navarro understands that,” the chief of staff said.
Representatives of the NIAID did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday night.
Trump and Meadows both admonished Navarro following pressure from fellow Republicans, who said that feuding with the country’s leading infectious disease specialist could damage the president politically and make the administration’s coronavirus response look chaotic.
Still, Meadows said that to suggest everything Fauci says is true is “not correct.” Trump and other top White House officials went after Fauci over his dire warnings about the virus’ resurgence in states across the country.
The chief of staff said he had spoken privately with both Fauci and Navarro after the dust-up. After his Fox interview, Meadows told reporters he does not see an “ongoing effort to undercut Dr. Fauci.”
Talking to Zuckerberg
During the Facebook event, Fauci also said that the nation needs to “regroup” and “call a time out” as U.S. coronavirus cases continue to surge. Too many states skipped over certain guidelines as they jumped to reopen their economies.
He told Zuckerberg that he expected results from a clinical trial on a potential treatment involving monoclonal antibodies by late summer or early fall.
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