Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, described a “somewhat of a liberating feeling” working in the new Biden administration, which “let[s] the science speak.”
“Obviously, I don’t want to be going back over history, but it was very clear that there were things that were said, be it regarding things like hydroxychloroquine and other things like that, that really was uncomfortable because they were not based on scientific fact,” Fauci said during a White House press briefing. “I can tell you, I take no pleasure at all in being in a situation of contradicting the president.”
Fauci’s comment about hydroxycholoroquine refers to former President Donald Trump‘s favored COVID-19 remedy, despite it having little scientific backing and few significant results in treating the virus.
“The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know, what the evidence, what the science is and know that’s it, let the science speak. It is somewhat of a liberating feeling,” Fauci said of the Biden administration, adding that under Trump, “you didn’t feel that you could actually say something and there wouldn’t be any repercussions about it.”
President Joe Biden‘s main first goal as president is addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, which has ravished across the country, killing more than 400,000. He has proposed a $1.9 trillion relief package aimed at supporting struggling businesses, adding unemployment benefits and financing the nationwide rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Biden has specifically set a goal of administering 100 million shots during his first 100 days in office.
Fauci praised the new administration in the press conference for its commitment to honesty.
“One of the new things in this administration, if you don’t know the answer, don’t guess. Just say you don’t have the answer,” Fauci said.
