Dr. Anthony Fauci is pushing back against the advice of somebody one Trump administration official called the "anti-Dr. Fauci."
Neuroradiologist Scott Atlas, a top medical adviser to President Trump who has no background in epidemiology, has reportedly been pushing Trump toward the controversial theory of herd immunity to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. And after Trump brought it up with Fox News' Laura Ingraham on Monday, Fauci seemingly decided it was time to fire back.
"Herd immunity is that when you have enough people who've either been infected and/or vaccinated and protected" from the virus, "there's enough protection in the community" and the virus slows its spread and perhaps even stops, Fauci explained Wednesday to MSNBC. "We're not there yet. That's not a fundamental strategy that we're using. The fundamental strategy ... is to try to prevent as many infections as you possibly can" by identifying a case, isolating the person who has it, and contact tracing where they've been, Fauci continued.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Trump told Ingraham on Monday that "once you get to a certain number [of coronavirus cases,] it's going to go away." That's untrue, and not how things worked in Sweden when it tried the herd immunity strategy.
-
President Trump: ‘waging war’ on ChicagoTalking Point Federal agents are carrying out ‘increasingly aggressive’ immigration raids – but have sanctuary cities like Chicago brought it on themselves?
-
Sudoku medium: October 18, 2025The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
-
Sudoku hard: October 18, 2025The Week's daily hard sudoku puzzle
-
DOJ indicts John Bolton over classified filesSpeed Read Continuing the trend of going after his political enemies, Trump prosecutes his former national security adviser
-
Trump, Putin set summit as Zelenskyy lands in DCSpeed Read Trump and Putin have agreed to meet in Budapest soon to discuss ending the war in Ukraine
-
Courts deal setbacks to Trump’s Chicago operations
Speed Read President Donald Trump cannot deploy the National Guard in Illinois
-
Pentagon reporters turn in badges after refusing rulesSpeed Read They refused to sign a restrictive new press policy imposed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
-
Supreme Court points to gutting Voting Rights Actspeed read States would no longer be required to consider race when drawing congressional maps
-
Trump says he authorized covert CIA ops in VenezuelaSpeed Read He is also considering military strikes inside the country
-
‘Vile, racist’ leaked chats roil Young RepublicansSpeed Read Leaders of Young Republican groups made racist, antisemitic and violent comments in private chats
-
Trump ties $20B Argentina bailout to Milei votesspeed read Trump will boost Argentina’s economy — if the country’s right-wing president wins upcoming elections
