President Donald Trump stated Tuesday that Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the two top medical experts on the White House coronavirus task force, will “still be involved” with the administration’s response once the task force is disbanded.
Vice President Mike Pence confirmed to reporters earlier in the day that the administration is discussing ways to wind down the daily commitments of the task force members, which include multiple agency heads, by Memorial Day. Pence said the talks are still in the preliminary phase.
Dr. Anthony Fauci (L), director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases speaks next to Response coordinator for White House Coronavirus Task Force Deborah Birx, during a meeting with US President Donald Trump and Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards D-LA in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on April 29, 2020. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
“Oh yeah, they will be,” Trump responded when asked by reporters about Birx and Fauci’s future involvement with the response. “And several other doctors and so will other experts in the field. We have learned a lot.”
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Earlier in his media appearance, Trump noted that “Pence and the task force have done a great job, but we’re now looking at a little bit of a different form, and that form is safety and reopening.”
He told CNN’s Jim Acosta that this isn’t a “mission accomplished” moment.
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“We can’t keep our country closed for the next five years,” the president continued. “You could say there might be a recurrence, and there might be. Most doctors or some doctors say that it will happen, but it will be a flame, and we are going to put the flame out. We learned a lot.”