Despite an increase in the number of coronavirus cases across the country — including a record-setting 77,000 cases Thursday — Dr. Anthony Fauci told MSNBC that the coronavirus task force now meets only weekly.
In an interview Friday with MTP Daily's Chuck Todd, Fauci said the task force meetings with the government's top scientists and health officials "have diminished" in recent months as the White House has focused more on reopening the country.
"We're averaging right now about one a week," Fauci said - a significant reduction from earlier this year, when the death toll exploded in the Northeast and the group met almost daily.
Asked when he'd last spoken directly to the president, who's repeatedly criticized him in recent days and called him a "disaster," Fauci said, "I have not done that in a while."
