The National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases director, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said that meetings with President Trump regarding the coronavirus have “dramatically decreased” in recent weeks.
“We used to have task force meetings every single day, including Saturday and Sunday, and about 75% of the time after the task force meeting we’d meet with the president,” Fauci said in an interview with Stat News. He said a month ago he would meet with the president four times a week.
“But as you probably noticed, that the task force meetings have not occurred as often lately,” Fauci said. “And certainly my meetings with the president have been dramatically decreased.”
Riots and protests following the death of George Floyd have escalated in cities across the United States have escalated, supplanting the coronavirus pandemic as the most immediate crisis facing the White House, even though more than 100,000 have died from the COVID-19 virus.
Fauci said he’s concerned about the speed at which states are starting to open up. “If people want to get out, they’ve really got to gauge it with the level of the outbreak in their particular area,” Fauci said. He is concerned after seeing pictures of people “crowding around bars” in places that show “a considerable amount of viral activity.”
Fauci also said that the administration hopes to be able to administer a vaccine by the end of this year.
