- Fauci made the surprising claim in a CNN special ‘COVID WAR: The Pandemic Doctors Speak Out’
- ‘May have been the best decision that I’ve ever made,’ he said of push to make COVID vaccines
- Remark glossed over the roles of pharmaceutical companies and Operation Warp Speed
- Trump has repeatedly claimed credit for the development of vaccines in record time
- He has also accused Fauci of nay-saying the program to rush vaccines to the public
- ‘If it were up to Fauci we still wouldn’t have a Covid vaccine,’ a Trump confidante said in response
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, appeared to claim credit for the decision to quickly develop vaccines against COVID-19 on Sunday – in comments that are sure to anger Donald Trump.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made the comment in an interview with CNN for a special, diving into the details of America’s pandemic response.
‘When I saw what happened in New York City, almost over-running of our healthcare systems, and that’s when it became very clear that the decision we made on January 10 to go all out and develop a vaccine, may have been the best decision that I’ve ever made with regard to intervention as the director of the institute,’ Fauci said.
Fauci’s remarks seemed to gloss over the key role played by pharmaceutical companies and Operation Warp Speed – the Trump administration’s program to manufacture, test and deliver vaccines to the public in record time.
Trump, who has frequently expressed frustration with Fauci publicly, touts Operation Warp Speed as a key achievement of his presidency, and says he pushed the program forward even when Fauci was dismissive of it.