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Fauci responds to Trump tweet: ‘I have not been misleading the American public’
Dr. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday pushed back at President Trump for suggesting that he had misled Americans in his role as the nation’s top infectious diseases expert and member of the White House coronavirus pandemic task force.
Asked on ABC’s “Good Morning America” about the president’s retweeting a post claiming Fauci has “misled the American public on many issues,” the doctor offered a strong retort.
“’I have not been misleading the American public under any circumstances,” the 79-year-old said.
“I don’t tweet. I don’t even read them so I don’t really want to go there,” Fauci said on GMA. “I just will continue to do my job no matter what comes out because I think it’s very important.”
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, added that he would “certainly continue” to do his job.
“We’re in the middle of a crisis with regard to an epidemic, a pandemic, this is what I do, this is what I’ve been trained for my entire professional life, and I’ll continue to do it,” he said.
The top expert recently also rejected Trump’s characterization of him as “a little bit of an alarmist” about the pandemic – saying he prefers to think of himself as “a realist.”
Fauci’s comments came after the president fired off a series of tweets Monday night in defense of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the deadly bug.
One of the messages Trump retweeted — and was later removed by Twitter– included a woman who claimed to be a Houston doctor surrounded by others in white lab coats who called themselves “America’s Frontline Doctors.”
Conservative media outlet Breitbart News published the video of the group standing outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, as they staged a press conference.
In the post — which has since been flagged by Twitter and removed from the Trump’s feed – the group advocated for the medication and discouraging people from wearing face masks, according to the news outlet.
The woman asserted that “you don’t need masks” to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and argued that recent studies showing hydroxychloroquine is ineffective against the virus are “fake science” sponsored by “fake pharma companies.”
“This virus has a cure, it’s called hydroxychloroquine, zinc and Zithromax,” the woman said. “You don’t need masks, there is a cure.”
Her claims run in contrast to several studies on the drug and advice from a number of public health officials to prevent spread of the disease.
“The overwhelming prevailing clinical trials that have looked at the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine have indicated that it is not effective in [treating the] coronavirus disease,” Fauci said Tuesday.
The video garnered over 14 million views before it was taken down Monday night for “sharing false information.”
“We’ve removed this video for sharing false information about cures and treatments for COVID-19,” a Facebook rep told CNN.
Twitter also worked to remove the video Monday night.
“We’re taking action in line with our COVID misinfo policy,” a Twitter rep told the network.
By early Tuesday, the videos were no longer able to be viewed on the president’s account.
Twitter also took action on a version of the footage posted by Donald Trump Jr. and others.
YouTube also yanked the video after it had been viewed more than 40,000 times.
According to the website for America’s Frontline Doctors, the group is led by LA-based emergency medicine specialist Dr. Simone Gold.
In May, she told The Associated Press that she wanted to speak out against stay-home orders because there was “no scientific basis that the average American should be concerned” about the pandemic.
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