"So, this is actually a very dangerous and unpredictable time as far as the COVID-19 is concerned and its spread," Redlener said. "...We talk about almost 8 million cases now in the U.S. These are cases confirmed by testing and probably 10 times that number are actually infected. That means about 80 million Americans are probably infected at this point and the fatality rate shows really no sign in letting up. We have a lot to talk about in terms of all this and what does it mean? And what should the president be doing? It's almost a waste of time to talk about what the president should be doing and I'd like to retract that suggestion because he actually, as it turns out, doesn't know what he is doing - and a lack of forthrightness, his dishonesty that is endemic to everything that comes out of his mouth at this point, we really cannot trust him."
Redlener added, "And I'm concerned by the way - about increasing dismay among his top medical advisers about how he is either abusing them or exploiting them, including recently with Trump using Anthony Fauci's words out of context in a political campaign ad. I think his network is collapsing, his credibility has already collapsed and we're left really befuddled and waiting for some change that's not going to happen, I'm afraid, until we have a new administration in office and running the White House and the federal agencies that need to be taking care of us people."
Redlener is president emeritus and co-founder (with singer songwriter Paul Simon and Karen Redlener) of Children's Health Fund, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at The Earth Institute - Columbia University. and Professor of Health Policy & Management and Professor of Pediatrics, Columbia University Medical Center.
Fauci received a presidential medal of freedom from former president George W. Bush and "served honorably and worked closely with the Obama administration," Wallace said.
"Well, it's increasingly clear to people like Tony Fauci, and really all of us in the medical and public health community, that Donald Trump is just unhinged," Redlener said. "There is no limit to the amount of abuse he'll heap onto all of his medical advisers. You know, it's not just Tony Fauci, it is the public dressing down of Robert Redfield, the CDC director who testified what he felt about masks and social distancing. And Trump publicly went after him saying he was wrong. The whole thing is absurd and, actually, to the point, Nicolle, I have an op-ed coming out tomorrow morning in the Daily Beast that will be calling for Fauci and five of his colleagues, the top medical provider experts in the nation, to step down now en masse before the election. I think we need - we need that expression of concern from them. Whether they'll take this advice or not."
Redlener added, "But I'll tell you that I don't know anybody in the medical profession, at least in the circles I run in, that think anything other than Donald Trump is unhinged and that's caused an incredible number of problems, including a lot of unnecessary avoidable deaths among people who could have survived if we had been doing things the right way from the beginning of this crisis, Nicolle."
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