Dr. Anthony Fauci is calling on the United States to come together to combat the COVID-19 pandemic rather than allowing states to fend for themselves.
“We’ve got to do everything we possibly can to pull together as a nation and not as individual factions, having differences that spill over into public health,” Fauci told The New York Times on Tuesday.
He added, “Public health is something that has really nothing to do with politics. I mean it’s just a reality of what infectious diseases are.”
Check out his remarks below:
Public health “really has nothing to do with politics,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said at the @dealbook summit, calling on the U.S. to “pull together as a nation and not as individual factions.” https://t.co/c2b3RqzVlD pic.twitter.com/VEGOTPYW68
— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 17, 2020
He stressed the importance of a peaceful transition of power and how it is crucial for tackling COVID-19.
“I’ve been through five transitions; I can say that transitions are extremely important to the smooth continuity of whatever you’re doing. Right now we are in a very difficult public health situation,” Fauci said.
He continued, “If you want to have good continuity, which will mean maximal attack on infections, hospitalizations, death, you want to have the continuity. I’ve used the metaphor it’s like passing a baton in a race. You don’t want somebody to stop, give it to somebody and then have them start running. You want everything to be smooth from one to the other.”
Watch more of his comments below:
“It’s like passing a baton in a race,” Dr. Fauci said of the importance of a smooth transition between administrations during a public health crisis. He didn’t mention President Trump or President-elect Joe Biden by name, insisting he wants to “stay out of the political stuff.” pic.twitter.com/rD6AJ4avNr
— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 17, 2020
During his appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, Fauci told Jake Tapper it would be “better” if public health officials could begin working with the Biden-Harris team, as IJR previously reported.
Fauci reiterated during his “Today” interview Monday it is “critical” to have a smooth transfer of power and added it is necessary to move forward with distributing a COVID-19 vaccine.
“This is something that just is now going in the very, very strong, right direction. The vaccines are effective. We want to get it approved as quickly as we possibly can. We want to get doses to people starting in December, and then we want to really get the ball rolling as we get into January, February, and March,” Fauci said.