Dr. Anthony Fauci became a household name during the daily coronavirus briefings where he appeared by President Donald Trump’s shoulder, but the infectious disease expert now says that he has not spoken to the president in weeks.
In an interview on Tuesday with Washington NPR station WAMU, Fauci said that he spoke to Trump, “Not last week, but the week before.”
He continued, “I spoke with him when we made the presentation to explain to him our vaccine development efforts,” adding, “So it was two weeks ago.”
Fauci also talked about states reopening, saying, “Even when states officially go by the standard type of recommendations, you still find people within a state or within a city who are not adhering to recommendations,” adding later, “It isn’t as if you stay locked down or you open up and leave caution to the wind.”
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The doctor seemed cautiously hopeful about a coronavirus vaccine. He told WAMU, “We fully expect that we will have an advanced trial … by the first week or two in July.”
Fauci added, “We’re moving very quickly, and I might emphasize not at the expense of safety.”
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This is not the first time that Fauci has said that his meetings with Trump have become rare. In early June, he said, “I was meeting with him four times a week back, a month or so ago. But as you probably noticed, that the task force meetings have not occurred as often lately.”
Fauci has been cautiously optimistic about the future of the coronavirus outbreak but has warned about the possibility of a second wave of infections.
On Tuesday, though, Fauci told WAMU, “It is not inevitable that we’re going to have a second wave if we do what we need to do to prevent it from happening.”