Dr. Anthony Fauci declined to say whether he’s been in contact with presumptive President-elect Joe Biden.
The head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases declined to answer the question posed to him by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer during an interview on Monday.
“I would prefer not to talk about any of that because right now, I want to focus on what I’m doing now with regard to getting a vaccine and getting this country well towards normality, which I think we’re going to be able to get there with this vaccine,” Fauci said.
When asked if he would stay in his current role, he replied, “Certainly, that’s what I want to do.”
Blitzer also asked Fauci about the last time he had spoken to President Trump. Fauci said it was after Trump got COVID-19 and was being treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center at the beginning of October.
Fauci and Trump have occasionally been at odds over the response to the coronavirus pandemic, and the president has even flirted with the idea of firing Fauci after the election. Now, Trump is refusing to concede the election as he waits on legal challenges and recounts to play out.
Fauci and Blitzer also talked about how Pfizer and BioNTech, which have a nearly $2 billion contract with the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed vaccine initiative to produce 100 million doses of the vaccine as soon as it is proven to be safe and effective, announced Monday morning that a vaccine candidate has a more than 90% effectiveness in preventing COVID-19.
“We may have doses that we’re able to give to people by the end of November, beginning of December. Probably well into December,” Fauci said.
