Meadows says Fauci wrong to compare coronavirus to 1918 pandemic [View all]

[left-of-center2012]

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said on Thursday that Anthony Fauci was wrong to liken the coronavirus to the 1918 flu pandemic, calling his remarks “false” and “irresponsible.”
“He was at Georgetown the other day and he suggested that this virus was worse or as bad as the 1918 flu epidemic. And I can tell you that not only is that false, it is irresponsible to suggest so.”

Meadows was referring to remarks Fauci made Tuesday during a Georgetown University Global Health Initiative webinar during which he described the coronavirus as a “pandemic of historic proportions” and suggested it was possible the coronavirus could approach the “seriousness” of the 1918 pandemic.

“Right now if you look at the magnitude of the 1918 pandemic where anywhere from 50 to 75 to 100 million people died (worldwide), I mean that was the mother of all pandemics and truly historic,” Fauci said. Fauci said the two pandemics are similar because they were caused by new viruses that jumped from animals to humans and that were also highly transmissible between people.

Fauci has been a key public health voice amid the coronavirus pandemic, offering unvarnished assessments of the threat presented by COVID-19 that have cut against more rosy pronouncements from President Trump and the White House. Fauci at times has contradicted Trump’s public statements without directly criticizing the president.

Meadows on Thursday said that the White House has “a lot of people that have a lot of different opinions”, and called Fauci’s remarks “false” and “irresponsible.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/507763-meadows-says-fauci-wrong-to-compare-coronavirus-to-1918-pandemic