Fauci Calls Out Trump Campaign Ad That Used Him Without Permission – The New York Times

Heres what you need to know:Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the countrys top epidemiologist, said the Trump campaign had used his name and words in a political ad without his permission.Credit...Michael A. McCoy for The New York Times

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the U.S. governments top infectious disease expert, took issue Sunday with a decision by the Trump campaign to feature him in an advertisement without his consent and said it had misrepresented his comments.

I was totally surprised, Dr. Fauci said. The use of my name and my words by the G.O.P. campaign was done without my permission, and the actual words themselves were taken out of context, based on something that I said months ago regarding the entire effort of the task force.

CNN first reported Dr. Faucis displeasure with the campaign ad.

The spot seeks to use Mr. Trumps illness with Covid-19 and apparent recovery to improve the negative image many Americans have of his handling of the coronavirus.

I cant imagine that anybody could be doing more, the ad shows Dr. Fauci saying though in fact he was talking about the broader government effort.

Dr. Fauci, who said he had never publicly endorsed a political candidate in decades of public work, has long had an uneasy relationship with President Trump. Just a little over a week ago, he clashed with his boss over his position on mask-wearing.

In his debate with former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Mr. Trump claimed that Dr. Fauci had initially said masks are not good then he changed his mind. When Mr. Biden said wearing masks could save tens of thousands of lives, Mr. Trump contended that Dr. Fauci said the opposite.

In fact, in the early days of the pandemic, Dr. Fauci and other health experts discouraged the general public from rushing out to buy masks because they were worried about shortages for health workers. Their position changed when it became clear that asymptomatic transmission was spreading the virus.

Dr. Fauci may favor measured language, but his criticisms of the White House and, implicitly, the man in the Oval Office over the handling of the pandemic have not gone unnoticed including by hard-core Trump supporters who claim he is part of a deep state conspiracy to undermine the president.

On Friday, Dr. Fauci called the White House ceremony announcing Judge Amy Coney Barretts nomination to the Supreme Court a superspreader event.

It was in a situation where people were crowded together and not wearing masks, he said. The data speak for themselves.

Judge Barretts confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee begins on Monday. The proceedings will play out partially by video to allow senators who may be sick or worried about infection to participate remotely. No members of the public will be allowed in the hearing room, which will be sparsely populated with senators and spectators.

President Trump said in an interview on Fox News on Sunday that he was taking pretty routine medicine to treat his coronavirus infection, though some of his treatments were aggressive and experimental, and added that he was immune and now totally free of spreading the virus.

When he repeated the claim that he was immune and unable to spread the virus on Twitter, the platform added a label saying that the tweet violated Twitters rules about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

The president spoke about his treatments with Maria Bartiromo on Foxs Sunday Morning Futures, adding that he was prepared to resume campaign travel on Monday, when he has a rally planned in Florida.

The medications that I took were standard, pretty routine, Mr. Trump said. In fact, he received cutting-edge combination treatment: remdesivir, an antiviral medication; dexamethasone, a steroid only recently shown to reduce death rates in severe cases; and an experimental cocktail of monoclonal antibodies, designed to turn back the virus shortly after infection.

Mr. Trump insisted that he was now immune to the virus. It does give you immunity, the president said, although he acknowledged its unclear for how long.

Scientists do not yet fully understand how long immunity to the coronavirus may last following an infection, nor how strong it may be.

Mr. Trump pointed out that he was on a balcony for an event on Saturday at the White House attended by a few hundred people who gathered on the South Lawn, and therefore posed little threat of infecting others.

I think on the whole, it is probably a safe assumption he is no longer contagious, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said on the CBS program Face the Nation on Sunday, citing some of the data released about the presidents test results.

I think the question now is, has his health been restored? Dr. Gottlieb said. And we know that a lot of patients have lingering effects from Covid.

Mr. Trump tried to raise questions about whether his opponent in the upcoming presidential election, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., could be sick, claiming he had been coughing horribly yesterday.

The Biden campaign released results of the candidates coronavirus testing, which so far are negative. The White House has declined to do for the president, even in a doctors memo on Saturday declaring him no longer at risk of transmitting the virus.

There is not nearly enough of the experimental Covid-19 drug that President Trump called a cure after receiving it and promised to distribute for free to treat the many Americans who may need it, the chief executive of Regeneron, the drugs maker, said on Sunday.

Currently, there are enough doses of the drug to treat 50,000 patients, the company has said. There were more than 51,000 new infections reported in the United States on Saturday alone, according to a New York Times database.

We have to figure out ways to ration this, said Dr. Leonard S. Schleifer, the co-founder and chief executive of Regeneron, on CBSs Face the Nation.

He said that the company was still in discussions with the administration about who might be first to receive the monoclonal antibodies and when. The treatment has not been approved by the F.D.A., but the White House is pushing the agency to grant an emergency use authorization and speed the drug to market.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration, also on the program, noted a resurgence of coronavirus outbreaks in the Midwest and Northeastern states, and faulted the Trump administration for failing to ramp up manufacturing of potential treatments last spring.

Monoclonal antibodies have long seemed promising, he added. It is too late for this year, Dr. Gottlieb said. We can take steps now to do it in 2021.

Mr. Trump touted the treatment as a cure for Covid-19 in a video last week, in which he extolled the benefits he felt after receiving it. But it is impossible to know whether or to what extent the drug may be responsible for his apparent recovery.

Both Mr. Trump and Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, called Dr. Stephen Hahn, the F.D.A. commissioner, several days ago to urge that the agency approve the treatment quickly. Eli Lilly, which also makes an antibody treatment, has applied for emergency authorization as well.

Dr. Hahn told Mr. Trump that the agencys scientists must fully review the data before approval, according to an F.D.A. official.

The New York City authorities cracked down over the weekend on some of the citys coronavirus hot spots, issuing more than 60 summonses and tens of thousands of dollars in fines to people, businesses and houses of worship that did not follow newly imposed restrictions on gatherings or were found violating mask and social-distancing requirements.

Among those issued a summons by the New York City sheriff were a restaurant and at least five houses of worship in the citys red zones, where infection rates are the highest. Each of those locations was given a summons that could result in up to $15,000 in fines, said Sheriff Joseph Fucito.

In total, officials issued 62 tickets and more than $150,000 in fines during the first weekend the new restrictions were in effect, the city said on Sunday.

New York is wrestling with its most acute pandemic crisis since the virus first swept through the five boroughs in March. City and state officials say that large gatherings and lax social distancing have been causing a surge in new cases in pockets of Brooklyn and Queens, many of them in Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods.

The spike prompted Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to issue new restrictions on large gatherings and nonessential businesses in some parts of the city. Some religious leaders expressed staunch opposition to the crackdown.

The moment has set an already anxious city on edge, particularly as doctors, experts and health officials express growing concern about a second wave of the virus this winter. It also foreshadows the challenges city officials may face as they try to quash emerging hot spots in small communities before the virus can spread into the rest of the city.

Obese Americans are more likely to become dangerously ill if they are infected with the new coronavirus. Now public health officials are warning that a much broader segment of the population also may be at risk: Even moderately excess weight may increase the odds of severe disease.

The warning, reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week, may have serious implications. The World Health Organization says excess weight is a problem around the world, affecting 1.9 billion people in 2016.

In the United States, about 40 percent of U.S. adults are obese, and another 32 percent are simply overweight rates that are among the worlds highest and mean that nearly three-quarters of Americans may be at increased risk of severe Covid-19 if infected.

Its important to make sure the public and individuals are aware of this potential risk, said Dr. Brook Belay, a medical officer at the C.D.C.

Other medical conditions for which there is limited or mixed evidence of increased Covid-19 severity include asthma, cerebrovascular disease and cystic fibrosis, the C.D.C. said. Medical conditions clearly shown to increase the risk of Covid-19 include cancer, chronic kidney disease, heart disease and sickle cell disease, among others.

Doctors observed early on in the pandemic that excess weight appeared to pose an extra risk to patients. But since obesity is often accompanied by other medical problems, it took some time for researchers to learn whether excess fat, in and of itself, was the culprit. Many studies now indicate that it may be, at least in some patients.

Adipose tissue the fat accumulated by the body is itself biologically active, causing metabolic changes and abnormalities. Adipose promotes a state of chronic low-grade inflammation in the body, even without an infection.

In addition, abdominal obesity which is more common in men may cause compression of the diaphragm, lungs and chest cavity, restricting breathing and making it more difficult to clear pneumonia and other respiratory infections

The coronavirus is roaring back across much of Europe, where countries are reporting daily infection numbers comparable to and sometimes far beyond those of the pandemics first peaks.

France, which has placed Paris and five other cities on maximum alert, reported 26,896 new infections on Saturday, a record daily high. The country reported 20,000 cases the day before, and as of Saturday had averaged 16,000 daily cases over the previous week.

Daily cases in France have risen 32 percent over the past two weeks, and daily deaths are up 14 percent, according to a New York Times database.

Britain, which recorded over 15,000 cases on Saturday, is expected to announce a new plan on Monday that would rank areas in tiers; places where the virus is spreading would require tighter restrictions.

The nation is at a tipping point, Jonathan Van-Tam, Britains deputy chief medical officer, said Sunday. This time is different, he said, as we are now going into the colder, darker winter months.

In Spain, the regions of Catalonia and Navarra ordered new restrictions on Sunday after the government used emergency powers on Friday to enforce a partial lockdown in the Madrid area despite protests from the regions leaders. The country reported over 12,000 new cases on Friday, and its seven-day average of daily deaths has risen 14 percent.

Even Germany, much praised for its testing and contact-tracing capabilities, reported a record 8,000 new infections on Saturday, by far its highest single-day number. But the countrys seven-day average of new daily cases remains far below its spring peak of almost 5,600.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday that more restrictive measures would follow local ones, including a curfew of 11 p.m. on bars in some places, if infections did not slow in urban hot spots.

We will go back to partying, to having fun without corona restrictions, she said. But right now, other things are more important.

The Israeli military began treating civilian coronavirus patients for the first time on Sunday, deploying to an overstrained hospital in the port city of Haifa and opening two Covid-19 wards in a previously unused fortified underground facility.

The move is another expansion of the militarys contribution to the countrys fight against the virus. The civil defense force has been running coronavirus hotels where infected people can isolate themselves and providing food to hard-hit areas. In August, the force formed a task force, headed by a decorated major general, to expand testing and contact tracing, and to offer local logistical assistance.

Israel has been under a second national lockdown since mid-September, after its daily coronavirus infection and death rates soared to among the highest in the world. The infection rate has begun to decline in recent days, from a peak of 9,000 daily confirmed cases to under 4,000.

About 100 doctors, nurses and paramedics from the Israel Defense Forces medical corps are joining civilian staff to operate the two Covid-19 wards beneath the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa. Wearing ordinary hospital scrubs under their masks and gowns, officials said that they would be indistinguishable to patients from the civilian medical staff.

Rambams fortified facility was constructed in 2014. Located 16.5 meters, or about 54 feet, underground in a space that doubles as a parking lot, it was designed as an emergency hospital that could withstand chemical, biological and conventional attacks during wartime.

The new wards will initially have the capacity to treat a few dozen patients who are not in need of ventilation, according to Col. Dr. Noam Fink, the militarys deputy chief medical officer. The first two patients were admitted on Sunday.

Israeli hospitals have so far managed to cope with the coronavirus crisis, but Dr. Avi Weissman, the deputy manager of the Haifa hospital, said that the caseload had forced hospital staff to be pulled from other departments and that close to a third of the elective surgeries the hospital would ordinarily perform had been delayed.

Global Roundup

Nepal, a country of 30 million people sandwiched between India and China, is enmeshed in a public health crisis.

Coronavirus infections have surpassed 100,000, about a third of which are currently active. That is a modest caseload compared with neighboring India, which is second the world in total infections, but more than the 94,000 cases reported in Nepals other neighbor of more than a billion people, China, where the virus first emerged late last year.

Cases in Nepal are increasing sharply, with a record 5,008 new infections recorded on Saturday. The Health Ministry counts fewer than 400 patients in intensive care, but even that has left I.C.U.s overflowing. Frontline doctors have also been infected, raising fears that health institutions staffing will be hollowed out.

To avoid system collapse, the government has asked Covid-19 patients to stay in home isolation with the possibility of imprisonment if they venture outside and to go to hospitals only if their condition turns critical. Almost 16,000 infected patients are in home isolation, according to the Health Ministry, and more than 11,000 others are in institutional isolation or hospitals.

But by the time infected people become seriously ill, it may be too late. Dr. Rabindra Pandey, a public health expert, said that some patients had died in ambulances while searching for I.C.U. beds, others in home isolation, and still others while waiting for I.C.U. beds in isolation wards. More than 600 people have died in Nepal since the pandemic began, a relatively low death rate but one that is likely to rise since the explosion in cases was so recent.

We are already in critical condition in terms of controlling coronavirus, Dr. Pandey said. But darker days are yet to come.

On Sunday, health experts warned that if the virus continued to spread in the countryside it would be impossible for the health care system to handle the influx of cases. Most facilities are in Kathmandu, the capital, which is the center of the countrys outbreak.

The situation has raised alarm about two major approaching festivals. During Dashain, a 15-day Hindu and Buddhist festival that takes place later this month, Nepalis living abroad and the countrys urbanites normally travel to villages in the mountains and plains to see relatives. Similar celebrations take place during Tihar, a five-day Hindu festival that is akin to the Diwali festival of lights in India and that falls next month.

The Health Ministry has urged Nepalis not to go out for Dashain shopping and to keep their distance from older people, even if it means canceling holiday plans.

In other global developments:

The Solomon Islands has recorded its second coronavirus infection, Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said Sunday. Both infected people are students who were on the same repatriation flight from the Philippines in late September; the first case was announced on Oct. 3. The two students are asymptomatic and in isolation. Mr. Sogavare said there would be no national lockdown but that all repatriation flights would be suspended.

Iran surpassed 500,000 cases on Sunday and recorded a record 251 deaths. Two of the countrys vice presidents, Mohammad Bagher Nobakht and Ali Akbar Salehi who is also Irans nuclear chief are the latest senior officials to test positive for the virus, the semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported.

Greece recorded a record 13 deaths on Sunday. New rules limiting the number of people allowed in restaurants, museums and archaeological sites go into effect on Monday in Athens and other parts of the country with high infection rates.

In South Korea, masks will be mandatory in public starting on Tuesday in an apparent effort to keep the coronavirus at bay as social distancing measures are eased. After a 30-day grace period, people over age 14 who fail to wear masks could be fined as much as 100,000 won, or $87. Social-distancing measures are down to their lowest level as of Monday as a second outbreak of infections appears to wane. Nightclubs, bars and karaoke parlors are allowed to reopen and spectators are allowed back into sports stadiums. South Korea reported 97 new cases on Monday, slightly higher than the increase most days last week.

New Zealand on Monday announced its first deal for a potential coronavirus vaccine, agreeing to buy 1.5 million doses from the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and the German biotechnology company BioNTech if their candidate succeeds. Officials did not say how much it cost to buy the vaccine, which could be available early next year. With each person expected to require two doses, there would be enough to inoculate 750,000 of New Zealands five million people. Megan Woods, the research minister, said that the government was in negotiations with other drug makers and that there would be more announcements next month.

Hanan Ashrawi, a high-ranking Palestine Liberation Organization official and negotiator, tested positive for Covid-19, her office announced on Sunday. Ms. Ashrawi, 74, tested positive days after Saeb Erekat, another veteran Palestinian negotiator, was confirmed to have contracted the virus.

India edged closer to overtaking the United States in total virus cases, passing the seven-million mark. And Brazil became the second country, also after the United States, to record more than 150,000 deaths.

A curfew in Berlin closed bars and restaurants at 11 p.m. on Saturday, curbing the German capitals renowned nightlife. Berlin was following in the footsteps of Frankfurt, where a curfew had already been imposed, but starting an hour earlier.

Lebanon will close bars and nightclubs indefinitely to help contain the virus, Reuters reported. The virus has killed more than 450 people in a country reeling from financial crisis and an explosion in the capital, Beirut, two months ago.

The president of French Polynesia tested positive for the virus two days after meeting in Paris with the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, according to the French newspaper Le Monde. The office of President Edouard Fritch said in a statement that he was tested after he returned to Tahiti and complained of fever and pain.

The White House continued to express optimism on Sunday that a stimulus package could be signed before Election Day, even as Senate Republicans panned the idea of passing another multitrillion-dollar relief bill and President Trump and Speaker Nancy Pelosi traded blame for the impasse.

Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, suggested that skeptical Senate Republicans would follow President Trumps lead if Ms. Pelosi and Steven Mnuchin, the treasury secretary, could reach a deal.

If an agreement can be reached, they will go along with it, Mr. Kudlow said on CNN.

Mr. Kudlows remarks, however, seemed to be starkly at odds with the sentiment expressed by many Senate Republicans, who dashed hopes that the White Houses $1.8 trillion offer would have sufficient support in their party in a conference call on Saturday.

In a letter to her Democratic colleagues on Sunday, Ms. Pelosi said Republicans were once again at odds over their own position, and she continued to hammer away at the White House for what she called a wholly insufficient proposal for greater testing, contact tracing and treatment.

Until these serious issues are resolved, we remain at an impasse, she wrote. However, I remain hopeful that the White House will join us to work toward a relief package that addresses the health and economic crisis facing Americas families and will do so soon.

But Mr. Trump, who abruptly halted talks last week before reversing his position to demand a large package, claimed on Sunday that Ms. Pelosi of California remained the sole impediment to the legislation.

Republicans want to do it were having a hard time with Nancy Pelosi, Mr. Trump said on Sunday, speaking on Fox News. Were ready to go. Were all ready to go. We cant get Nancy Pelosi to sign the documents.

It was unclear what documents he was referring to.

Republicans senators have expressed some support for smaller, targeted legislation to help stricken industries. And in a letter to Congress on Sunday, Mr. Mnuchin and Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, called on lawmakers to approve a bill that would repurpose funds from the lapsed Paycheck Protection Program as negotiations continued. (Democrats have previously rejected passing piecemeal legislation instead of a broad, comprehensive package.)

This all-or-nothing approach is an unacceptable response to the American people, the two men wrote.

The president has been largely ignoring those concerns, saying on Friday that he wants a stimulus package that is larger than what Democrats or Republicans have proposed.

Asked on Sunday if Mr. Mnuchin would in fact be proposing a package that would cost more than $2 trillion, Mr. Kudlow paused and said, He may.

Despite the uncertain path to getting anything passed in the next three weeks, Mr. Kudlow insisted that the economic recovery was on track and that Democrats were to blame if nothing got done.

I think if we could get this thing settled on a Democrat side, we will get it settled on the Republican side, Mr. Kudlow said, adding that negotiations would continue.

As President Trump continued to trail by double digits in polls, several of his surrogates tried on Sunday to shift attention away from the details of his coronavirus infection and his administrations handling of the pandemic.

See the original post here:

Fauci Calls Out Trump Campaign Ad That Used Him Without Permission - The New York Times