White House Reportedly Ordered Infectious Disease Chief ‘Not to Say Anything’ About Coronavirus Without Clearance

Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

The New York Times is reporting that Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has told associates that he has received directions from the White House “not to say anything else without clearance” about the potential coronavirus pandemic.

Writing for the Times, Michael Scherer and Maggie Haberman report about recent efforts by the Trump administration to “tighten control of coronavirus messaging by government health officials and scientists, directing them to clear all statements and public appearance with the office of Vice President Mike Pence, according to several officials familiar with the new approach.”

In a Wednesday evening press conference, President Donald Trump announced that Vice President Pence would be leading federal efforts to contain — and to and inform an increasingly concerned public about — a coronavirus outbreak which is looking more and more like a pandemic every day. Pence was publicly scheduled to lead a task force meeting on Thursday after first making what must have been a very important political appearance at CPAC.

Perhaps most troubling in the NY Times reporting, however, is news that “one of the country’s leading experts on viruses” has been effectively muzzled by a White House that appears to be putting a higher priority on an effective political narrative than a better-informed public. To wit:

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, one of the country’s leading experts on viruses and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases, told associates that the White House had instructed him not to say anything else without clearance.

The new White House approach came as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged Thursday that a California woman with coronavirus was made to wait days before she was tested for the disease because of the agency’s restrictive criteria about who may get tested.

During a Thursday morning appearance, Haberman spoke about the Trump administration’s credibility problem to an audience of CNN New Day viewers.

Haberman flatly noted the “sheer volume of things not true said by this president and some of his aides does not inspire credibility,” before explaining that this is “why they are being questioned on it at a time when they need it.”

“Most of the controversies this White House has dealt with have been of the president’s making. Not all, but most. This one is not. And how you handle that is a moment where you want people to believe that they can trust what you’re saying. And they have brought this on themselves that people question it.”