Coronavirus: Trump and chief staffer share inflammatory conspiracy theories
US President Donald Trump and his chief communications staffer have both shared inflammatory coronavirus conspiracy theories criticising the country's main pandemic health authorities.
Mr Trump first retweeted comments posted to Twitter yesterday by high-profile conservative and television host Chuck Woolery that criticised US health authorities, the media and Democrat politicians.
That move was quickly followed by Daniel Scavino Jr., the White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications, who shared a cartoon to his own Facebook page targeting Dr Anthony Fauci, the US Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
"Sorry, Dr. Faucet! At least you know if I'm going to disagree with a colleague, such as yourself, it's done publicly — and not cowardly, behind journalists with leaks," Mr Scavino Jr.'s post said.
The move by Mr Trump, who has more than 83.4 million Twitter followers, and Mr Scavino Jr. comes as the World Health Organisation's chief slammed some government leaders for eroding public trust by sending mixed messages on the coronavirus.
The image shared by White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Daniel Scainvo Jr. criticising Dr Anthony Fauci. Ben Garrison
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that their failures to stop their countries' spiralling outbreaks mean there would be no return to normal "for the foreseeable future".
He did not call out specific politicians for criticism but said "too many countries are headed in the wrong direction".
Meanwhile, with coronavirus raging in the US Mr Trump and Dr Fauci are no longer speaking. The US president has taken to openly criticising him on television. Dr Fauci is expressing puzzlement at some of Mr Trump's claims.
With coronavirus raging in the US President DonaldTrump and Dr Anthony Fauci are no longer speaking. Getty
"Dr Fauci is a nice man, but he's made a lot of mistakes," Mr Trump said this week, undermining the public health expert Americans say in polls they trust more than the president.
Toward the beginning of the pandemic, Mr Trump also retweeted a conservative activist who used the hashtag #FireFauci in complaining about the doctor, though the White House insisted afterward that Mr Trump had no plans to dismiss him and that "Fauci has been and remains a trusted advisor to President Trump".
By early June, Mr Trump and Dr Fauci had largely stopped in-person engagements.
US President Donald Trump has donned a mask for the first time in public during a visit to a military hospital on Saturday (local time). Associated Press
Dr Fauci – who has advised every president since Ronald Reagan – told the Financial Times this week that he last saw Mr Trump on June 2 at the White House, and hasn't personally briefed him in at least two months.
The WHO reported on Sunday another worldwide record of more than 230,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in just 24 hours, with 10 countries accounting for 80 per cent of the daily tally, and more than half of the new confirmed cases from the United States and Brazil alone.
With CNN.
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