Fauci: Emails highlight confusion about Trump administration’s mixed messages early in pandemic

Anthony Fauci said emails obtained by The Washington Post reflected “mixed messages that were coming out of the White House” from a host of people who flooded his inbox in the early months of the pandemic.

The Post obtained 866 pages of Fauci’s emails through a Freedom of Information Act request, from March and April 2020, during the first two hectic months after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic and global restrictions on public gatherings shut down much of the world.

Fauci said he was “getting every single kind of question” at the time because people were confused about the “mixed messages” coming out of the White House and wanted to know “the real scoop.”

“I was getting every single kind of question, mostly people who were a little bit confused about the mixed messages that were coming out of the White House and wanted to know what’s the real scoop,” Fauci told the Post in an interview about the emails the newspaper obtained.

“I have a reputation that I respond to people when they ask for help, even if it takes a long time. And it’s very time consuming, but I do,” he added.

The correspondence opens a new window into what it was like for the nation’s top infectious diseases expert to navigate some of the most panic-stricken early weeks of the pandemic.

The Post notes that the emails do not show Fauci directly criticizing former President Trump and instead staying in close contact with White House officials.

The emails also show that Fauci was inundated with correspondence, which included communications with colleagues, hospital administrators, foreign governments and random strangers asking for his advice or his help or offering encouragement and support.

Fauci revealed that he would receive about 1,000 messages a day, the Post noted.

One correspondence came from George Gao, the director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, who wrote to Fauci on March 28 about comments he made in an interview, adding at the end, “Lets work together to get the virus out of the earth.”

“Thanks for the note,” Fauci responded. “We’ll get through this together.”

Fauci also received emails with questions and requests from an official in the Office of the Surgeon General, a representative from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and GOP Rep. Fred Upton (Mich.).

In one email, Fauci forwarded someone, whose address has been redacted, a Google Alert for him with an article titled “Cuomo Crush and ‘Fauci Fever’ — Sexualization of These Men Is a Real Thing on the Internet.”

“Click on the ‘Cuomo Crush’ and ‘Fauci Fever’ link below. It will blow your mind. Our society is really totally nuts,” Fauci wrote.

In April, Gao again reached out to ask Fauci how he was doing “under such an irrational situation,” referring to threats Fauci was receiving, namely from Trump supporters who blamed him for closing schools because of social distancing guidelines, tanking the economy and threatening Trump’s reelection chances, the Post noted.

“I saw some news (hope it is fake) that [you] are being attacked by some people. Hope you are well under such a irrational situation,” Gao wrote.

“Thank you for your kind note,” Fauci replied three days later. “All is well despite some crazy people in this world.”