FLORIDA • US President Donald Trump yesterday suggested he might seek to fire a highly respected member of his coronavirus task force, Dr Anthony Fauci, after the top infectious disease expert further criticised Mr Trump's handling of the virus.
Dr Fauci, who is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has taken issue with Mr Trump's repeated assertions that the US' fight against the virus was "rounding the turn" when in fact tens of thousands of people are being infected daily.
"We're in for a whole lot of hurt. It's not a good situation," Dr Fauci told The Washington Post last Friday. "All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the autumn and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly."
Dr Fauci said that Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden was taking the virus "seriously from a public health perspective".
White House spokesman Judd Deere said over the weekend: "It's unacceptable and breaking with all norms for Dr Fauci, a senior member of the President's coronavirus task force and someone who has praised President Trump's actions throughout this pandemic, to choose three days before an election to play politics."
Mr Deere said Dr Fauci was "choosing to criticise the President in the media and make his political leanings known by praising the President's opponent".
When Mr Trump defended his handling of the virus at a campaign rally at Opa-Locka airport in the Miami area late on Sunday night, a "Fire Fauci" chant broke out.
In response to the chant, Mr Trump said: "Don't tell anybody, but let me wait until a little bit after the election. I appreciate the advice, I appreciate it."
He added: "No, he's been wrong on a lot. He's a nice man, though. He's been wrong on a lot."
Mr Trump has campaigned to fully reopen the US economy and has rejected many public health measures designed to slow the spread of the virus.
Meanwhile, Mr Biden has said he would support lockdown measures if scientists recommended doing so, and he would do more to encourage mask-wearing.
Americans vote today, with Mr Trump trailing Mr Biden in opinion polls.
Dr Fauci is one of the most popular health experts in the United States, a fact that Mr Trump has cited in the past to avoid getting into tangles with him.
Separately, US officials have warned of a significant undercount in coronavirus cases as rapid tests are becoming more widely available, delivering results in minutes in doctor's offices, nursing homes, schools and even the White House.
Officials say that antigen tests, which are faster than polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests but less able to detect low levels of the coronavirus, are an important tool for limiting the spread of Covid-19. But they caution that with inconsistent public reporting, the case undercount may worsen.
"We want to be sure that we're not now saying, 'there's no disease', when there is lots of disease. All that's happened is that the science with which we identify it has evolved," said Dr Janet Hamilton, executive director of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, the group that helps the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) define cases of the coronavirus.
Despite CDC guidance to report cases based on PCR and antigen testing, Washington and seven states do not publicly share case counts for those with antigen positive tests. Another six states keep these tallies separate from their total case counts, and most of these report them less frequently.
REUTERS, BLOOMBERG, NYTIMES
