Fauci says Covid response was hampered by ‘disinformation and political ideology’ in farewell essay

Public health expert often had to battle Trump administration on basics of pandemic response

Anthony Fauci, who for many Americans became the champion of a science-first approach to tackling the pandemic, is retiring from his position as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases this month.

In a farewell essay, he argued that the US could have had an even more effective response to Covid, were it not for the deep polarisation of American politics and culture at large.

“We also must acknowledge that our fight against C‌‌ovid-19 has been hindered by the profound political divisiveness in our society,” Dr Fauci wrote in a New York Times opinion piece on Sunday. “In a way that we have never seen before, decisions about public health measures such as wearing masks and being vaccinated with highly effective and safe vaccines have been influenced by disinformation and political ideology.”