Despite increasing infections in seventy-five percent of the U.S., The White House coronavirus task force has met just twice in the past two weeks, top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci revealed in an interview Friday.
“An official task force meeting … in the last several weeks, has been about one per week,” Fauci, a member of the task force, told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd.
By comparison, in the early spring when New York City was in the throes of its first outbreak, the task force would sometimes meet every day of the week, Fauci said.
“Some time a few months ago, when things pivoted around to more of the economic reopening, as it were, of the country, the number of task force meetings have diminished,” Fauci said Friday.
He also said President Trump last attended a meeting “several months ago.”
But Vice President Mike Pence, who heads every meeting, relays whatever is discussed to the president, according to Fauci.
News of the meeting slow-down comes as the U.S. on Thursday set a record number of daily coronavirus infections, according to an NBC News tally.
On Wednesday, Jay Butler, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s deputy director for infectious diseases, said seventy-five percent of the country is seeing a surge in coronavirus infections.
“Unfortunately we’re seeing a distressing trend here in the United States,” Butler said at a press briefing.
