Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the nation’s top infectious disease doctors, assured the public that patients who become sick with the coronavirus will receive the medical care they need despite concerns from some local and state leaders.
“I think the reality, not the rhetoric, but the reality is that the people who need things will get what they need,” Fauci said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. “There’s a reality and a rhetoric. I think that — I mean, I know the spirit of the task force, and when we talk about when people need things, doesn’t matter who they are — we try to get them what they need.”
Fauci is a member of President Trump’s White House Coronavirus Task Force combating the spread of the virus throughout the United States.
He has spent the last several weeks updating the U.S. public on the virus’s trajectory and serving as one of the president’s top medical advisers on the pandemic.
More than 123,000 U.S. citizens have contracted the virus, including 2,000 deaths as of Sunday morning.
Fauci, who has positioned himself as grounded in the strictly scientific standpoint, said the numbers will likely rise but not at the rate some models have claimed.
“There are things called models, and when someone creates a model, they put in various assumptions. And the model is only as good and as accurate as your assumptions,” Fauci said.
Late last week, several governors of states seen as recent hot spots for the pandemic said they are not getting the federal resources they need to properly respond to the virus.
“I’ve asked repeatedly and respectfully for help. We need it. No more political attacks, just PPEs, ventilators, N95 masks, test kits. You said you stand with Michigan — prove it,” said Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
After Fauci did not appear during a press conference early last week, some in the media speculated of a growing rift between him and the president.
“The president has listened to what I have said and to what the other people on the task force have said. When I have made recommendations, he has taken them. He’s never countered or overridden me. The idea of just pitting one against the other is just not helpful,” Fauci responded last week. “I wish that would stop, and we’d look ahead at the challenge we have to pull together to get over this thing.”
