Anthony Fauci concludes ‘with a high degree of confidence’ that Donald Trump is ‘not shedding infectious virus’, NBC says

Dr Anthony Fauci has concluded “with a high degree of confidence” that Donald Trump is “not shedding infectious virus”, NBC News has said, ahead of the president’s Thursday night town hall in Miami.

Dr Fauci confirmed to The New York Times that he did indeed make that assessment.

On Sunday, Dr Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, was angered by the Trump campaign’s use of his words in a campaign advert, which made it appear he was praising Trump’s handling of the pandemic. Dr Fauci accused the campaign and the president of taking his words out of context, but they were unrepentant, saying that those were indeed Dr Fauci’s words.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the network went into detail about their Covid-19 precautions, and Dr Fauci’s assessment.

Thursday night’s town hall is being held as an alternative to an in-person debate, which the debates commission decided last week would be held virtually, to prevent the spread of the virus. The president then pulled out of the event, and the debate was cancelled.

NBC said on Wednesday that they had been given a statement by Dr Clifford Lane, Clinical Director at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), indicating that he and Dr Fauci had reviewed the president’s recent medical data, including a PCR test collected and analysed by NIH on Tuesday, and made their conclusions.

The network did not explicitly say that Trump had received a negative result from the PCR test.

Dr Fauci told The New York Times that he and Dr Lane had reviewed the PCR result, as well as data from viral cultures and multiple negative tests on a rapid antigen test, Abbott’s BinaxNOW.

The pair then corresponded with Dr Sean Conley, the president’s physician, who provided all of the information that they assessed.

“We were just given the data and we made a determination from the data,” Dr Fauci said.

Mr Trump’s PCR test had a cycle threshold — a proxy for viral load — of 34.3, Dr Fauci said.

According to data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people with a threshold over 33 carry little to no live virus.

Thursday’s town hall will be held outdoors, at Miami’s Perez Art Museum.

The host, Savannah Guthrie, and the president will be at least 12 feet apart from both each other and the audience, NBC said.

The audience will also be socially distanced and required to wear face masks while on the premises, answer a symptoms questionnaire and take a temperature check prior to entering the outdoor venue.

Every NBC News staffer will be tested on site on the ground in Miami.

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