Washington: Chief Medical Advisor to the US President, Anthony Fauci said that the lack of truthfulness from the previous President Donald Trump's administration about the COVID-19 pandemic "very likely" cost American lives.
"Particularly when you're in the situation of almost being in a crisis with the number of cases and hospitalizations and deaths that we have -- when you start talking about things that make no sense medically and no sense scientifically, that is not helpful," Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) said in an interview to CNN.
When asked if the lack of candour over the last year and lack of facts, in some cases, lead to over 400,000 people dead from COVID-19, Fauci said, "You know, it very likely did."
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Fauci said that it's "not helpful" when "you're starting to go down paths that are not based on any science at all," adding that he doesn't wish to rehash how the Trump administration steered away from science.
