It’s becoming a kind of daily ritual: President Donald Trump and a phalanx of doctors file into the White House briefing room each evening to discuss the coronavirus, producing a display of rhetorical contortions as the medical officials try to stay true to the science without crossing the president.
The result can be a bewildering scene for Americans trying to understand how best to protect themselves from the virus.
Redfield then tried to “clarify” his remarks by saying the return of the virus during flu season would be a difficult combination — while allowing that his earlier comments had been accurately reported. Story continues“The doctors on the task force and the scientists more generally responding to the pandemic are constantly looking over their shoulders,” said Lawrence Gostin, a public health expert at Georgetown University. “There is a tug of war between the politicians and the public health officials. It’s a very unhealthy dynamic.”
Earlier this month, Fauci set off Trump when he told CNN that more lives could have been saved if the U.S. government had acted more quickly. Trump has largely listened to his team of medical experts. But he also sees them as his subordinates and doesn't want to be crossed. At Thursday's briefing, Birx was the only one of the medical experts advising the president in attendance. She spoke only briefly.
Trump and some in his inner circle have grown frustrated at Fauci's willingness to break with the president both in interviews and during the briefings. Although Trump has not discussed firing Fauci, despite a clamor from some on the right, he has expressed annoyance at Fauci’s positive press coverage — and word was sent from the White House that the doctor should not participate in any more personal profile stories.
As the Trump administration’s original 15-day guidelines promoting social distancing were set to expire at the end of March, she told a Christian TV network popular with Trump’s evangelical base that she was confident that the president, like her, was a student of data.
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