Fauci Unfazed by Attacks on His COVID-19 Advice, 'I Don't Let It Bother Me'

The U.S.'s top infectious diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci has said he is not concerned about attempts to discredit his advice on the coronavirus pandemic.

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has faced attacks on his character during the pandemic. One White House memo expressed concern regarding "the number of times Dr Fauci has been wrong on things."

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump's trade adviser, Peter Navarro, also took aim at Fauci in an op-ed for USA Today in which he accused him of "flip-flopping" over the use of face masks.

Navarro also took issue with Fauci's views on the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine to treat the disease, writing he would only listen to Fauci "with skepticism and caution," in the piece which the White House has distanced itself from.

However in an interview with Reuters, Fauci, who has become a popular figure as the scientific face of the White House's response to the outbreak, said criticism of him was less important than the goal of getting a vaccine.

"I don't let it bother me. What we're doing with vaccines, what we're doing with therapeutics, what we're doing with clinical trials is the real substance," Fauci said.

Earlier, Fauci had told The Atlantic that the administration's pushback against his COVID-19 recommendations were "bizarre," describing them as "nonsense" and "completely wrong."

"I think they realize now that that was not a prudent thing to do, because it's only reflecting negatively on them," he said in a Q&A with the magazine. "When the staff lets out something like that and the entire scientific and press community push back on it, it ultimately hurts the president."

Fauci, who earlier this week said in a webinar that the COVID-19 pandemic could reach the level of the Spanish flu, which killed millions between 1918 and 1920, also told Reuters that he was confident that the U.S. would meet its projected timetable of getting a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year.

He pointed to promising results from biotech company Moderna which has produced a candidate that will go through its last stage of testing on July 27, and which appears to offer the type of protection seen in a natural infection.

However, Fauci said that it did not matter whether China beat the U.S. to a safe and effective vaccine, which experts consider as the only way out of the pandemic.

"I think everybody's sort of on the same track, they're not going to get it particularly sooner than we get it. That's for sure," he said. "I don't worry about anybody getting there first."

The graphic below, provided by Statista, illustrates U.S. states where reopenings have been stalled or reversed.