Dr. Fauci Admits He Should’ve Been ‘Much More Careful’ on Early COVID Messaging
Michaela Zee editor Dr. Anthony Fauci believes that he should’ve been “much more careful” in his messaging during the initial U.S. COVID-19 outbreak, saying that his early statements should’ve repeated “the uncertainty of what we’re going through.” “When I said, ‘At this particular time, we should not necessarily do anything different,’ that’s when there was, like, five cases in the country,” Fauci said. “But then I said — I kid around about it — it was semicolon, ‘However, this could change rapidly and we need to be prepared.'” Fauci spoke with Washington Post national health reporter Dan Diamond on Oct. 5 at a seminar hosted by the University of Southern California’s Center for Health Journalism. Along with discussing COVID and monkeypox, Fauci recalled the media coverage of his role during the pandemic, and how he was both scrutinized and revered by the public.