Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted on Monday that during visits to the Trump White House, he was worried that he might become infected by the coronavirus.
Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, is 80 years old, and he told Axios that due to his age, he is at a higher risk of having "a serious outcome" should he get COVID-19. Fauci said while he didn't "fixate" on becoming sick, it was "in the back of my mind because I had to be out there. I mean, particularly when I was going to the White House every day, when the White House was sort of a superspreader location. I mean, that made me a little bit nervous."
Former President Donald Trump downplayed the coronavirus, and during his administration, many White House employees went without masks. In October, Trump, former first lady Melania Trump, and several White House staffers and lawmakers announced they had tested positive for COVID-19, days after they attended a ceremony in the Rose Garden for Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Fauci did not go to this event.