Dr. Anthony Fauci, the renowned director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, addressed restraints on the testing process for the Wuhan coronavirus, saying neither President Donald Trump nor the CDC are to blame for shortcomings.
In an interview with political commentator Hugh Hewitt on “The Hugh Hewitt Show” Tuesday, Fauci said a “technical glitch” slowed the production of tests at the outset of the pandemic.
“It was a complicated series of multiple things that conflated that just, you know, went the wrong way. One of them was a technical glitch that slowed things down in the beginning. Nobody’s fault. There wasn’t any bad guys there. It just happened,” Fauci said.
At a congressional hearing on coronavirus test kits last week, Facui admitted, “The system is not really geared to what we need right now.”
Hewitt asked Fauci, who has advised presidents since 1984, whether “anything about the production of the test [is] President Trump’s fault” or if any other president would have run into the same problem.
“Oh, absolutely. This has nothing to do with anybody’s fault, certainly not the president’s fault,” Fauci said.
Hewitt also asked Fauci, “What is it like working with the president? You’ve worked with a lot of presidents.”
“It’s an interesting experience,” Fauci replid. “You know, each president has their own unique character. He’s somebody who is very active, a lot of things going on, very direct, very decisive.”
In late February, the New York Times reported that Fauci “has told associates that the White House had instructed him not to say anything else without clearance.”
At a press conference shortly following the report, Fauci denied the claim, saying he had never been “muzzled” by the president.
“I’ve never been muzzled, and I’ve been doing this since Reagan,” Fauci responded. “That was a real misrepresentation of what happened.”
