Dr. Fauci Pushes Back Against Trump's False Claims About COVID Deaths
The doctor called for ‘intensive adherence to the public health measures”
In yet another episode of Things Trump Says That Are Not True, Dr. Anthony Fauci pushed back on President Trump’s allegations that the number of coronavirus-related deaths in the US has been “exaggerated” by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
During an appearance on ABC’s This Week, Fauci contradicted Trump’s tweet in which the world leader called the CDC’s count “ridiculous” and said the number of deaths in the U.S. is “Fake News!”
“Well, the deaths are real deaths. I mean, all you need to do is to go out into the trenches, go to the hospitals, see what the health care workers are dealing with. They are under very stressed situations in many areas of the country. The hospital beds are stretched,” Fauci said on Sunday in response to Trump’s false statement.
“People are running out of beds, running out of trained personnel who are exhausted right now. That’s real. That’s not fake. That’s real,” Fauci added.
To complicate the matter, the U.S. is behind in dispensing COVID-19 vaccinations.
Nationwide delivery began mid December after the Food and Drug Administration approved two vaccines, one from Pfizer and another from Moderna. Frontline healthcare employees were the first to get a dosage, with a nurse in New York receiving the one of the first shots.
Twitter users were quick to thank Dr. Fauci for reiterating the seriousness of the virus, and not allowing Trump’s false narrative to dominate the news cycle. The soon-to-be-out-of-office-and-taking-it-as-well-as-a-narcissist-can President tried to take back control of the conversation by tweeting that as Fauci works for the his administration, as Commander-in-Chief, Trump should take credit for his work.
https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/1345750586998878209
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports the US shipped out over 13 million doses of the vaccine as of Jan. 3; yet only 4.2 million people have reportedly been administered the shot.
There could be several reasons for the stall in vaccine delivery. Government officials point to a number of events — like the reduced office hours due to the Christmas and New Year’s holidays season, according to a report in the New York Times.
Also, a new coronavirus strain is beginning to spread across the country. This past week it was detected in California, Colorado and Florida. Even at the time of its discovery, health professionals announced that the apparently faster-spreading variant was possibly already in the U.S.
Barely into 2021, the country has documented its 20 millionth case of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. According to the New York Times, as of this writing there are more than 20.7 million people in the U.S. who have been infected with the coronavirus and at least 352,000 have died. As of January 4, 2021, the 7-day average of infection rate was 218,633, with many states reporting a backlog of data.
