Anthony Fauci Brushes Off White House Criticism from Peter Navarro

WASHINGTON, KOMPAS.com – The US’ leading infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, calls the White House criticism to discredit him as “bizarre.”

President Trump’s trade adviser, Peter Navarro, launched an attack on Anthony Fauci in a scathing opinion piece on USA Today.

In the article, Peter Navarro attacked the infectious disease expert for having made mistakes in handling the coronavirus pandemic.

Despite the criticism, the White House has denied that Fauci has been sidelined. President Trump has additionally issued a rebuke of Peter Navarro’s opinion piece.

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Anthony Fauci has become an immensely trusted and popular figure in the US during the coronavirus pandemic.

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Fauci has also been criticized by President Trump and some of his Republican allies including when Fauci cautioned against the reopening of the US economy too early.

US states that loosened coronavirus restrictions early are now facing an uptick in new Covid-19 infections.

This latest development has caused clashes between the infectious disease expert and the White House.

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In response to the White House criticism, Fauci urged an end to the divisiveness over the US’ response to the coronavirus pandemic, saying "let's stop this nonsense."

"One of the things that's part of the problem is the dynamics of the divisiveness that is going on now that it becomes difficult to engage in a dialogue of honest evaluation of what's gone right and what's gone wrong," Fauci told The Atlantic in an interview.

"We've got to own this, reset this and say OK, let's stop this nonsense and figure out how can we get our control over this now."

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The White House over the weekend distributed a list of statements Fauci made early in the pandemic that turned out to be wrong as an understanding of the disease developed, according to media reports.