Dr. Anthony Fauci conceded that some optimistic messages from the White House Coronavirus Task Force are not always attuned to reports from the ground.
During an ABC News interview set to air on Tuesday, the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases was pushed to explain lags in testing in places across the country and the availability of personal protective equipment.
“We keep hearing when we go to these task force meetings that these [issues] are being corrected,” said Fauci, who is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a key member of the task force. “But yet, when you go into the trenches, you still hear about that.”
Fauci went on to say that he “cannot explain” the discrepancy and doesn’t have a “good answer” for it. He noted that while the matters of PPE shortages are not among his “day-to-day” responsibilities, “many of the things that we needed were not produced in the United States.”
The doctor also called science a “learning process” when asked about his own misstep of initially saying that most U.S. residents should not need to wear face coverings. Fauci explained that decisions such as the original messaging about masks are “based on the information at the moment.”
“As a scientist, the thing you must always do is to be humble enough to know that when you get additional information, even information that might conflict what was felt earlier on, you then change your viewpoint, and you change your recommendations based on the data,” he said. “That’s what science is all about. Science is a learning process.”
Many states are still grappling with new coronavirus surges, and the total number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. has surpassed 4.2 million, with at least 147,285 deaths, according to the most recent count by Johns Hopkins University.
