WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony Fauci knew he was being turned into a villain of the far-right early on in the coronavirus pandemic, when President Donald Trump’s administration stopped defending him.
It was the result of a series of choices Fauci stands by to this day, despite all the grief it has brought his way: contradicting Trump’s declarations that the virus would magically disappear as a pandemic loomed and that untested drugs, like hydroxychloroquine, were effective remedies.
“I had to, as painful as it was, come out publicly and contradict the president of the United States,” he said in an interview with McClatchy, as he prepares to leave government at the end of December after a career in public service that has spanned five decades and seven presidents.
