Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'Anti-Science Bias' In America Contributing To Spread Of Virus, Fauci Warns
The White House coronavirus task force has been out of public view as President Donald Trump has shown an urgency to move past the pandemic, downplay recent surges in Covid cases in some states, and get Americans back to work. But the nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has been warning Americans about the risk of further spread of the virus. (Howard and Stracqualursi, 6/18)
Anthony Fauci, the nation鈥檚 top infectious diseases expert, said Wednesday that lockdowns meant to stem the spread of the coronavirus saved 鈥渕illions of lives鈥 in an interview... "[I]f you look at the data, now that papers have come out literally two days ago, the fact that we shut down when we did and the rest of the world did, has saved hundreds of millions of infections and millions of lives," he [said]. (Budryk, 6/18)
Vice President Mike Pence has overstated the amount of coronavirus-related medical equipment distributed by a Trump administration program on multiple occasions, according to public data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In an Opinion article published by The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Mr. Pence praised the Trump administration鈥檚 response to the coronavirus, and singled out Project Airbridge, a public-private partnership championed by Jared Kushner, President Trump鈥檚 son-in-law and senior adviser. (Ballhaus, 6/19)
And ProPublica looks at President Donald Trump's decision to cut ties with WHO 鈥
Right before President Donald Trump unveiled punitive measures against China on May 29, he inserted a surprise into his prepared text. 鈥淲e will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization,鈥 he announced during a press conference in the Rose Garden. Most of the president鈥檚 top aides 鈥 and even some of his Cabinet secretaries 鈥 were blindsided. Just 11 days earlier, Trump had sent an ultimatum threatening to withdraw from the WHO if reforms were not enacted in 30 days. (Rotella, Bandler and Callahan, 6/20)