Anthony Fauci’s relief at Donald’s departure …

The leading American epidemiologist, Anthony Fauci, confessed his relief at the departure of Donald Trump’s government, which he accused of having said things “which had no basis in the facts” about Covid-19. Now, he compared, he will be able to speak clearly about what science is saying about the pandemic.

“The idea that we can come here and talk about what we know, what the scientific evidence says, and let science speak, it’s a fairly liberating feelingFauci said during a press conference at the White House, a place he returned to after the harsh confrontation he had with the former Republican president in the last months of his government.

The problem started when Trump not only denied the severity of the virus instead, he began to contradict the conclusions of the experts on numerous occasions, especially when defended hydroxychloroquine as a substance that prevents and cures Covid-19.

Fauci admitted he felt “clearly” uncomfortable “ when, in the press conferences they attended together, the former president said things “which had no basis in fact”, and cited hydroxychloroquine as an example. The tension between the two increased to the point that the White House stopped inviting the epidemiologist to give press conferences on the pandemic.

“I don’t really like being in a situation where I have to contradict the president, and I really don’t feel like I can say anything and there wouldn’t be any repercussions.”, said at his first press conference under Joe Biden’s term.

Fauci is the leading disease and infection expert in this country, has advised several presidents and yet, Trump threatened to fire him. He did not do so because he realized that Fauci’s position as director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, in English) was not a political office.

Jaws with Biden

The democrat Joe Biden became the seventh US president advised by Fauci since the head of NIAID since 1984 and is one of the most respected figures in the scientific community in the country, a reputation that only increased during the pandemic.

From the lectern of the White House, the epidemiologist thanked the new president this morning for asking him to be “totally transparent and honest”.

“One of the novelties of this administration is that if we don’t know the answer, don’t guess. We’re just saying we don’t know the answer, ”he said.

He also assured that for the moment there is no confirmation that the South African variant of Covid-19 has arrived in the United States, while the British are already present in around 20 states.

Everything indicates that the vaccines which are administered in the United States and in other countries protect against these new variants, but if the injectable preparations must be modified, this process “will not be too expensive”, he calculated.

The United States is the country most affected by the pandemic in absolute terms, with more than 408,000 dead and 24.5 million infections, according to Johns Hopkins University. AND Biden’s goal, he said, is to ‘turn around’ the situation he inherited from Trump.