Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday he's not happy about being portrayed as a foe of President Donald Trump, so he wouldn't say if he thinks voting by mail is safer than voting in person.
"It’s a sport now in Washington to pit me against the president and I don’t really want to do that,” Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and is a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, told The Washington Post. "But someone will take a quote and bingo, it’ll be me against the president and I don’t want to do that."
He added that his opinion was "almost certainly going to be used as a sound bite," but at the same time, he didn't rule out voting in person on Election Day.
"I don’t see any reason why, if people maintain that type of physical distancing, wearing a mask and washing hands, why you cannot, at least where I vote, go to a place and vote," Fauci said.
Fauci and Trump have been seen as being at odds at times after the doctor's warnings about COVID-19 have often been contrary to how Trump frames the ongoing pandemic, including on the use of hydroxychloroquine.
Fauci said earlier this week that he has had to obtain additional security because of threats that have been made against him and his family.
Fauci also told the Post that he supports the Trump administration's push to reopen elementary and secondary schools, but said it depends on the rates of COVID-19 cases in various locations.
"The default principle should be to try as best you can to get the children back to school," Fauci said. "The big, however, qualifier in there is that you have to have a degree of flexibility ... the bottom line is everybody should try within the context of the level of infection that you have to get the kids back to school."
However, he added, the primary consideration should remain the safety, health and welfare of children and teachers and the potential secondary effects on their families.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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