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Navarro op-ed blasts coronavirus expert Fauci as having ‘been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on’
AN OP-ed from Peter Navarro blasted coronavirus expert Dr. Anthony Fauci as having "been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on."
The trade adviser's slam came days after the White House during the pandemic.
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Navarro wrote in an op-ed for that has given opposing guidance throughout the course of the pandemic.
Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House's Coronavirus Task Force.
The trade adviser wrote that when Trump announced a travel ban from – the then-epicenter of the pandemic – Fauci "fought against the president's courageous decision."
He continued: "When I warned in late January in a memo of a possibly deadly pandemic, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was telling the news media not to worry."
Navarro slammed Fauci for "telling the public the China virus was low risk," and "flip-flopping on the use of masks" as the US worked to create more.
He also slammed Fauci for questioning the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat the virus, noting .
The FDA last month , however, noting that it and sister-drug chloroquine are "unlikely to be effective in treating COVID-19 for the authorized uses in the EUA" and they had "potential serious side effects."
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Navarro also criticized Fauci for saying a decreasing "mortality rate doesn't matter when it is the single most important statistic to help guide the pace of our economic reopening."
"So when you ask me whether I listen to Dr. Fauci’s advice, my answer is: only with skepticism and caution," Navarro wrote.
Shortly after the it was published, White House Director of Strategic Communications Alyssa Farah said in a social media statement that Navarro's op-ed "didn't go through normal White House clearance processes and is the opinion of Peter alone."
"@realDonaldTrump values the expertise of the medical professionals advising his Administration," Farah tweeted.
Some other experts have defended Fauci, saying that as more information became available about the new disease, that guidance from doctors would naturally change.
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Fauci himself has been critical of some response by Trump and other leaders to the pandemic.
He on coronavirus.
The infectious disease expert also recently said states reopening too quickly led to "record-breaking cases," and that if the US does not get a hold on the virus soon, the .
Trump recently Fauci for "making a lot of mistakes" in handling the COVID-19 outbreak.
Navarro's op-ed came after The New York Times reported that the trade adviser in January and February warned the Trump administration of the pandemic, and.
The report claimed the Trump administration ignored the warnings – but .
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As of Wednesday, the US has confirmed more than 3.4million cases of coronavirus.
Over 136,000 people have died from the virus.
Cases over recent weeks have continued to climb, and as the .
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