Did White House Prevent Disease Expert From Talking About The Coronavirus?

In an apparent effort to clarify its messaging on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the White House reportedly muzzled a top infectious disease expert from speaking about the disease without first obtaining permission from the Trump administration.

On Thursday, the New York Times reported that the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. Anthony Fauci, had been told to not speak about the coronavirus publicly. A spokesperson for NIAID, however, told Business Insider that this is not the case.

After President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that Vice President Mike Pence would be heading up the coronavirus task force, the vice president was quick to restrict the types of public statements disease experts could make to the public without prior approval.

Fauci recently ruffled feathers at the White House over his statements about the potential reality of a serious viral outbreak within the United States. This week, in an interview with CNBC, Fauci said that enacting travel bans from China won’t necessarily prevent the virus from spreading to the U.S. Before that, he gave an interview with CNN in which he warned that the world could soon be facing a deadly pandemic.

Trump and his administration have been keen to express their confidence that the novel coronavirus will be swiftly controlled, with the president recently reassuring the public that a vaccine was being quickly developed. Fauci would later contradict this, stating that creating such a vaccine could take “a good year, year and a half.”

Keeping the public calm over the prospect of a further spread of the virus has been a top priority for the White House in recent weeks. Trump is reportedly deeply concerned about how fears of the coronavirus will impact financial markets; U.S. stock markets have already suffered deep losses over uncertainties and fears surrounding the disease.

Critics have said that the administration’s focus on stifling market panic by censoring disease experts could have serious consequences, as it hamstrings communication with the public and alienates individuals and organizations that will be crucial to containing the coronavirus.