Top US coronavirus testing czar defends public health officials after Trump shared a tweet accusing them of lying about the pandemic
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Top US coronavirus testing czar Adm. Brett Giroir came to the defense of public health officials after Trump shared a tweet accusing them of lying amid the pandemic.
"Look, we may occasionally make mistakes based on the information we have, but none of us lie," he told NBC News. "We are completely transparent with the American people."
Giroir did not dig deeper into Trump's intentions when sharing the tweet, saying he is more concerned with delivering clear insight during the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic.
However, members of the Trump administration and the president himself have gone after Giroir's colleague on the coronavirus task force — infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci.
The top US coronavirus testing czar defended the experts on the White House coronavirus task force and other health officials after President Donald Trump shared a tweet accusing them of lying amid the pandemic.
Trump retweeted a post from conservative television host Chuck Woolery, who wrote that the "most outrageous lies are the ones about COVID-19."
"Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most, that we are told to trust," Woolery wrote in the Sunday tweet. "I think it's all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. I'm sick of it."
In an interview on NBC News' "Today" show on Tuesday, Assistant Secretary of Health Adm. Brett Giroir, a pediatrician who also serves on the White House coronavirus task force, came to the defense of other public health officials.
"Look, we may occasionally make mistakes based on the information we have, but none of us lie," he told NBC News. "We are completely transparent with the American people."
Giroir refused to dig into Trump's tweet further, saying he is more particularly concerned with being clear about providing insight during the uncertainty of the pandemic.
"I'm a physician. I'm a scientist. I'm not a Twitter analyst," he told NBC News. "And to be quite honest, I don't spend time looking at any of that on Twitter, because who knows what it means or how it's interpreted."
Amid reports of mounting tensions between the White House and health experts on the coronavirus task force, Giroir added that he only had positive interactions with the Trump administration and Vice President Mike Pence, who heads the task force.
However, members of the Trump administration and the president himself have gone after Giroir's colleague on the coronavirus task force — infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Though he has rarely commented on the nature of his working relationship with Trump, Fauci has publicly contradicted a number of the president's claims about the coronavirus pandemic — from the importance of wearing masks and social distancing to gauging the threat of US coronavirus outbreaks.
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