'What a shallow character': Trump slammed as Dr Anthony Fauci reveals ex-president's focus on 'ratings' during early Covid briefings

WASHINGTON, DC: Dr Anthony Fauci recalled how former President Donald Trump responded when corrected during a televised press briefing in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, according to HuffPost.

Dr Fauci anticipated a backlash from the then-POTUS for publicly refuting his assertion earlier in the briefing that the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine could be an effective cure for COVID-19.

However, after the briefing ended, the MAGA figurehead shifted his focus and proudly discussed with Fauci the "amazing" ratings their press briefings were garnering, the infectious disease expert told CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr Sanjay Gupta in a Tuesday interview.

What did Donald Trump say to Dr Anthony Fauci in the early stages of their COVID-19 press briefings?

"My God, these ratings are amazing,” then-President Trump stated, "They're better than cable, they're better than network," according to Dr Fauci, who also included a transcript of their conversation in his recently released memoir, ‘On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service.’

It’s no secret that Donald Trump was “very, very fixated on image and ratings, and he thought that the amount of attention that was given to the press briefings was really terrific, and his comment was, ‘Wow, did you see those ratings?’” Fauci went on to say, adding. “My feeling was, ‘Ratings? We’re in the middle of a pandemic.’”

Dr Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), who served as the chief medical adviser to the White House until his retirement in 2022, explained to Gupta why he had to correct Trump's claims.

“I said to myself, ‘I have a responsibility to preserve my own personal integrity and a responsibility to the American public,’” Fauci remarked. “So, when I walked up to the podium, I said, ‘Here he goes.’”

“That was painful to me to have to do that, but there was no doubt that I had to do it,” he added. “It wasn’t like, ‘Well, maybe you should, maybe you shouldn’t.’ There was no doubt that I had to do it.”

Dr Anthony Fauci's revelations spark online criticism of Trump's pandemic response

People online lambasted the 45th President of the United States as Dr Anthony Fauci disclosed the conversations he's had with Trump during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic in his new memoir.

One person commented, "I'm still impressed with how much more Republicans know about medicine and science than the people who have dedicated their lives to the study. They don't believe that masks can help prevent the spread of infectious diseases and want to tease those who protect themselves. They are such a 'joy' for medical professionals who have to treat them as they can't grasp basic healthy behaviors that could help them in the future! smh."

Another person remarked, "Imagine how many people might still be alive if we’d had a real president that put the country over his ratings and re-election chances. It was never about saving lives for Trump."

A person said, "Trump has been fixated on this metric ever since the Apprentice. He's measured his self-worth by the ratings. He acts as though the presidency is some kind of reality show -- which spurs him to say and do crazy things to drive 'the ratings' -- when it's certainly reality but definitely not a show. That's why he shouldn't be president again."

One person claimed, "This just reinforces what a shallow character Trump has. Imagine bragging about ratings when people are dying during a pandemic. This is NOT a man we need for president."

Another person wrote, "Ratings over people’s lives. It’s the Trump way."

Finally, this person quipped, "Just wait till Trump learns the 'ratings' on the day he must report to jail! It will be the likes of which the world has never seen!"

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