Dr. Anthony Fauci Warns He Would Give up White House Medical Adviser Position if Donald Trump Wins in 2024
Dr. Anthony Fauci said that he would not stay in his White House medical adviser post if former U.S. President Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election.
Fauci noted in a Fox News report that the response during the Trump administration was not "optimal," adding that "history will speak for itself about that."
Trump butted heads with Fauci during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic regarding a number of issues, including the use of hydroxychloroquine, testing, and reopening of business, among others.
Trump has expressed numerous times his intent to run in 2024. However, he has not formally announced a presidential bid.
Anthony Fauci Under Donald Trump's Administration
Fauci has expressed the need for masks and social distancing while also frequently warning the dangers and threats of the pandemic on public health.
Meanwhile, Trump has downplayed the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The Hill report.
When Trump's presidency ended, Fauci remained the top pandemic adviser under U.S. President Joe Biden's administration. He noted in January 2021 that it was "liberating" to work with the new president.
Fauci earlier said that he takes no pleasure at all in "being in a situation of contradicting the president." He added that it was really something that he did not feel he could actually say something and that there would not be any repercussions about it.
Fauci said that letting the "science speak" is somewhat of a "liberating feeling."
The head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases also became one of the top targets for conservative ire over COVID-19.
Trump made his displeasure with Fauci known, at one point calling the medical expert an "idiot" during a phone call with campaign staff.
It was in an October 2020 phone call, with the former president saying, "people are tired of COVID."
Anthony Fauci on COVID-19 Pandemic
Fauci said weeks ago that the United States is "out of the full-blown explosive pandemic phase."
Fauci said in a Washington Post report that the U.S. is really in a "transitional phase, from the declaration of the numbers into hopefully a more controlled phase and endemicity."
However, he made clear that the pandemic is not over and that the U.S. could still see new infections with the virus mutating.
Fauci and other infectious disease experts are hoping that the population has enough immunity from previous infections and vaccinations to avoid a surge in hospitalizations and deaths.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that around three in five people in the U.S. have already contracted the virus. Meanwhile, one in four people had a first-time infection caused by the Omicron variant during the winter wave.
Public health experts are carefully eyeing the Omicron subvariant, with the CDC estimating that the subvariant account for about 30 percent of new infections.
The Omicron subvariant is reported to be more transmissible than the original variant strain.
READ MORE: CDC Recommends Shorter COVID Isolation Period for Health Care Workers Amid Omicron Variant
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Written by: Mary Webber
WATCH: President Donald Trump bashes Dr. Anthony Fauci - from CNBC Television