Peter Navarro, director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, is not holding back on his view of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s advice amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Straight out of the gate, Navarro took a swing at Fauci, saying, “Dr. Anthony Fauci has a good bedside manner with the public, but he has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on,” he wrote in an op-ed published by USA Today on Tuesday evening.
In the piece, Navarro claims Fauci opposed him on halting travel from China in late-January, something he says had the “potential of saving “hundreds of thousands of American lives.” Navarro said he was working on behalf of President Donald Trump.
Navarro said that when he was warning of a “possibly deadly pandemic” then, Fauci was “telling the news media not to worry.”
Again citing another time he apparently worked, on behalf of the president, in February, “to help engineer the fastest industrial mobilization of the health care sector in our history,” Navarro said Fauci was suggesting at the time that COVID-19 was “low risk.”
Additionally, he took aim at the nation’s top infectious disease expert for “flip-flopping” on the use of masks and for not fully backing hydroxychloroquine as a prevention for the coronavirus.
Navarro also said Fauci is “now” suggesting a “falling mortality rate doesn’t matter.” He is referring to when Fauci said on July 7 that it is “a false narrative to take comfort in a lower rate of death,” as IJR reported.
“Don’t get yourself into a false complacency,” Fauci said at the time.
Navarro wrapped up his op-ed, writing, “So when you ask me whether I listen to Dr. Fauci’s advice, my answer is: only with skepticism and caution.”
The White House adviser’s op-ed comes shortly after reports that the White House is trying to discredit Fauci.
However, Trump has sought to explain that though he may not agree with Fauci’s advice, he has a good relationship with the infectious disease expert.
“I have a very good relationship with Dr. Fauci,” Trump said on Monday. “I’ve had for a long time, right from the beginning. I find him to be a very nice person. I don’t always agree with him.”
Fauci said during a virtual event hosted by Georgetown University on Tuesday, “I believe, for the most part, you can trust respected medical authorities. I believe I’m one of them, so I think you can trust me.”
Additionally, White House Coronavirus testing czar Brett Giroir told NBC News on Tuesday, “Look, we may occasionally make mistakes based on the information we have, but none of us lie.”
