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Morning Briefing

Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

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Monday, Jul 13 2020

Full Issue

Leaked White House Memo Shows Efforts To Discredit Fauci

The memo obtained by media outlets says, in part, that "several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr. [Anthony] Fauci has been wrong on things." President Donald Trump and other members of the Trump administration have recently said they don't always agree with Fauci's blunt assessments of the pandemic.

The White House has taken the unusual step of attacking a member of its coronavirus task force, by providing a document to several media outlets that contains a list of comments made by Dr. Anthony Fauci in an effort to damage his reputation. The comments were first reported by the Washington Post. The news of the document comes as two senior level White House sources tell ABC News that Fauci has at times been referred to among aides to President Donald Trump as "Dr. Gloom and Doom." (Faulders and Santucci, 7/13)

As coronavirus cases surge in the United States, the White House is taking aim at the nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci. In a statement Saturday, a White House official told CNN that "several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr. Fauci has been wrong on things." The official went on to provide a lengthy list of examples, citing Fauci's comments early in the pandemic and linking to past interviews. (Holmes, 7/13)

The U.S.'s top coronavirus testing official, Adm. Brett Giroir, said Sunday that infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci is 鈥渘ot 100 percent right鈥 because he looks at the coronavirus pandemic from 鈥渁 very narrow public health point of view.鈥 Chuck Todd of NBC's 鈥淢eet the Press鈥 asked the White House testing czar about a Washington Post report that cited an official saying Fauci has argued for parts of the country with surges to shut down without buy-in from the rest of the White House task force. (Coleman, 7/12)

In recent days, the 79-year-old scientist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has found himself directly in the president鈥檚 crosshairs. During a Fox News interview Thursday with Sean Hannity, Trump said Fauci 鈥渋s a nice man, but he鈥檚 made a lot of mistakes.鈥 And when Greta Van Susteren asked him last week about Fauci鈥檚 assessment that the country was not in a good place, Trump said flatly: 鈥淚 disagree with him.鈥 (Abutaleb, Dawsey and McGinley, 7/11)

This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
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