Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the president, said Tuesday that he should have been "much more careful" with his COVID-19 messaging, especially early on in the pandemic, according to The Hill.
Fauci, who will be retiring in December, spoke with Washington Post national health reporter Dan Diamond about the first few months of the coronavirus pandemic at a seminar hosted by the University of Southern California's Center for Health Journalism.
Given the risk of information being "gobbled" by social media, Diamond asked Fauci if he would have done anything differently throughout the course of the pandemic.
"You know, the answer is yes, Dan," the prominent immunologist said. "I mean, my goodness, no one's perfect. Certainly I am not."
"When I go back in the early months, I probably should have tried to be much, much more careful in getting the message to repeat — the uncertainty of what we're going through," he added.
Fauci then recounted how he had advised that lifestyle changes were not needed at the beginning of the pandemic, when cases were very low. He cautioned at the time, however, that conditions could "change rapidly and we need to be prepared."
The longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases groused that the only statements from that time that were "thrown back" in his face were his recommendations that change was not needed.
"Well, as a matter of fact, that was true," Fauci said. "But if you wanted to say — if we knew then that this virus under the radar screen was transmitting in a way that was not fully appreciated and any of us would have said, Hey, you know, we've had five cases in the country. We need to shut down. People would have looked at us like we were crazy."
Diamond pointed to President Joe Biden's recent declaration that the "pandemic is over," in an interview on "60 Minutes," while also saying, "We still have a problem with COVID," as a potential example of Fauci's issues with messaging.
"You have to be very careful," Fauci said. "It is really unfortunate, that that's the world in which we live, in that it's a bunch of sound bites — sound bites that sometimes get cut in half and get misinterpreted. Someone could always make mischief by clipping out a few words."
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and other Republican lawmakers have attacked Fauci throughout the pandemic for what they perceive as contradictory or misleading statements.
Despite his impending departure from government, Republicans have promised to investigate him if they regain majorities in the House or Senate in the November midterm elections.