From our correspondent
WASHINGTON - The grimaces, the expressions of Anthony Fauci are worth as much and perhaps more than the card on anti-virus measures. On Friday March 20, for example, he covered his face with one hand, while Donald Trump produced himself in a tirade against the State Department's Deep State, that is, the hostile officials who would hinder his plans.
Fauci is the most important virologist in the country, the most experienced and the freest. It has also been America's talisman for a few weeks, by acclamation. In the end Donald Trump resigned himself: he can only adjust his microphone, give him the floor and nod conspicuously when this small man, with the white mop and the glasses of the seventies, is saying to him politely: but then you did not understand a tube. It has happened practically every day since the president decided to head off the war against the invisible enemy.
Trump leads the daily briefing at the White House. Fauci intervenes, then withdraws and observes with folded arms. On Sunday, March 22, in an interview with Science he told how the relationship with the American leader works: He follows his path, he has his own style, but he listens even if we don't agree on some issues. The most striking example. Trump renamed Covid-19 as the Chinese virus. On Friday 20th he said he was angry with Xi Jinping because the Chinese would have had to notify at least two to three months earlier.
Fauci comments: Two-three months earlier means September, too early. The councilors asked the president to let it go, but if he still says it is not that I can jump on the microphone and push him away, we will see how to correct.
Anthony Fauci, 79, is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases, based in Bethesda, a step away from Washington. Since January 30, when the American leader called him into the anti-virus task force, he reduced his sleep time from five to four and gave up the daily 3-kilometer walk.