Fauci Says White House COVID-19 Infections Are Preventable

By Mary Anne R. First Posted: Oct 07, 2020 05:57 AM EDT

Top infections disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said the COVID-19 cases in the White House is "not a hoax," but could have been prevented.

Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.

"It's an unfortunate situation when you see something like that because that could have been prevented," Fauci said in a report.

Many of those who attended an event last Saturday, wherein President Donald Trump announced Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his Supreme Court nominee, tested positive for COVID-19.

Photos of the event showed that people socialized without masks and social distancing protocols. These measures were done to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

In a virtual conversation with American University's students and families on Tuesday, Fauci answered a question raised by a student on handling family members who do not believe that the virus is real or serious.

"Right now we have 210,000 people who have died and 7.3 million people (who) have been infected. Globally, there are over 1 million people who have died. That is not a hoax," Fauci said.

He noted that no one could say that people worldwide and American allies are lying and calling it a hoax.

Downplaying COVID-19

A recent message from Trump downplaying COVID-19 in comparison to the flu was removed by Facebook.The post was also flagged by Twitter soon after the president posted it.

Trump's post claimed that sometimes "over 100,000" Americans die yearly from the flu - an overestimate on the average death toll from the flu.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 12,000 to 61,000 Americans died from influenza each year since 2010.

On the other hand, COVID-19 has killed more than 210,000 Americans over the last eight months, based on Johns Hopkins University data.

Twitter flagged the tweet with a message saying that the post violated "the Twitter Rules about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19." However, the president's tweet was not taken down as Twitter said it "may be in the public's interest."

White House COVID-19 Cases

Trump and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for COVID-19 and the president announced it via Twitter.

The couple took COVID-19 tests just hours after the White House announced that senior aide Hope Hicks had been infected. Hicks has been traveling with the president recently. She traveled with him on Air Force One to and from the first presidential debate in Cleveland.

Trump held several campaign rallies across the country for months. Many of these rallies were outdoors, but some have been indoors. He also traveled to New Jersey for a fundraiser.

Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, and Former adviser Kellyanne Conway also tested positive for COVID-19.

Former N.J. Gov. Chris Christie, Senator Mike Lee, R-Utah., Senator Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Senator Thom Tillis, R-N.C., were also diagnosed with coronavirus.

Officials who are also in the event but tested negative were Barrett, Vice President Mike Pence, Second Lady Karen Pence, HHS Secretary Alex Azar, and Atty. General William Barr.