President Donald Trump wears a face mask as he participates in a tour of Bioprocess Innovation Center at Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, Monday, July 27, 2020, in Morrisville, N.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
WASHINGTON 鈥� A week after appearing to project a more serious tone about the coronavirus, President Donald Trump is back to pushing unproven claims that an anti-malaria drug is an effective treatment and challenging the credibility of the nation鈥檚 leading infectious disease expert.
Dr. Anthony Fauci pushed back Tuesday, saying he will keep doing his job.
Numerous studies, meanwhile, have shown that the drug, hydroxychloroquine, is not an effective treatment for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. And the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently withdrew an order that allowed the drug鈥檚 use as an emergency treatment for COVID-19.
Yet overnight, after returning from a trip to North Carolina where he promoted efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, Trump retweeted a series of tweets advocating for hydroxychloroquine.
The president also shared a post from the Twitter account for a podcast hosted by Steve Bannon, a former top White House adviser to Trump, accusing Fauci of misleading the public over hydroxychloroquine.
Fauci, a leading member of the White House coronavirus task force, pushed back Tuesday during an appearance on ABC鈥檚 鈥淕ood Morning America.鈥�
鈥淚 go along with the FDA,鈥� said Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases. 鈥淭he overwhelming prevailing clinical trials that have looked at the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine have indicated that it is not effective in coronavirus disease.鈥�
It鈥檚 not the first time Fauci has come under attack from Trump and those close to him.
The president鈥檚 top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, who has clashed with Fauci over hydroxychloroquine, recently penned a scathing attack on the doctor that was published by USA Today. The newspaper later said the opinion piece did not meet its standards.
In recent nationally televised interviews, Trump himself has described Fauci as 鈥渁 bit of an alarmist鈥� and accused him of making 鈥渕istakes鈥� in his coronavirus guidance to the American people.
Asked if he can continue to do his job when Trump continues to publicly question his credibility, Fauci said Tuesday he鈥檒l press ahead 鈥渘o matter what鈥� because of the stakes involved.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 tweet. I don鈥檛 even read them, so I don鈥檛 really want to go there,鈥� Fauci said. 鈥淚 just will continue to do my job no matter what comes out because I think it鈥檚 very important. We鈥檙e in the middle of a crisis with regard to an epidemic, a pandemic. This is what I do. This is what I鈥檝e been trained for my entire professional life and I鈥檒l continue to do it.鈥�
Asked about claims he鈥檚 been misleading the public, Fauci said: 鈥淚 have not been misleading the American public under any circumstances.鈥�