If Trump does fire Fauci after the election, we will all be in grave danger

The president suggested at a rally in Florida last night that he may get rid of the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

During a Florida rally Monday evening, President Donald Trump suggested that he might fire Dr Anthony Fauci, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, after the presidential election on November 3rd.

In response to chants of "Fire Fauci" from the raucous crowd, Trump paused before saying, "Don't tell anybody, but let me wait until a little bit after the election. I appreciate the advice." Later in the event, Trump claimed that Fauci was "a nice guy but he's been wrong a lot." 

Since the public became widely aware of the Covid-19 pandemic in early March, the president has suggested that people inject disinfectant into their bodies, refrain from wearing masks, and has disregarded the FDA to peddle the possibly ineffective and potentially lethal drug hydroxychloroquine. Amid this chaos, Fauci has been instrumental in providing the public with information that isn’t completely unhinged from both scientific facts and common sense. 

However, Trump may soon rid the nation of this counsel. He has already effectively rid himself of it. When Dr Fauci correctly told the Washington Post that the US — which has among the highest global death counts — "could not possibly be positioned more poorly" to handle the coronavirus, a White House spokesman accused Fauci of "playing politics” to influence the election. 

And while Trump and Fauci appeared to be working together during the beginning of the pandemic, they no longer seem to be cooperating. Fauci said he no longer briefs Trump, and that Dr Scott Atlas — a deeply controversial figure — is now the president’s main counsel on the coronavirus. This is chilling, as Atlas has advocated for letting the virus spread among young people and has said we should reopen the country without restriction. 

Since his inauguration in 2017 — and throughout his campaign in 2015 and 2016 — Trump expressed his desire for absolute power in blunt statements that grow increasingly more terrifying. Part of his craving for power has always included lashing out at elected officials and members of his own administration who dare refuse to bend to his every whim, who shed light on his many lies, and who attempt to provide the people with some semblance of stability, instead of the unmitigated chaos Trump seems to prefer. 

If Trump wins the election — or successfully refuses to give up power, a threat he has made many times, indirectly and directly — the removal of Dr Fauci from his position will be detrimental, and will result in the loss of even more souls. 

Even with Dr Fauci at the helm of the coronavirus response — and he has made some serious errors, most notably saying that masks were not necessary near the beginning of the pandemic — we have suffered tremendously as a country. 

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 9.2 million people across the US have contracted coronavirus, and more than 230,000 people have died. There are absolutely many more infections and many more deaths that have not been officially recorded. And of those deaths, 1 in 1,000 were Black Americans. Although inequities have resulted in a dearth of data about how Indigenous communities have been impacted, a New York Times analysis has found that the rate of infection for may be double the national average. 

If Trump replaces Fauci and his sound scientific counsel with yet another incompetent or cruel sycophant, it will be disastrous. He is already pushing out the doctor in favor of a man who traffics in dangerous ideas about public health. Without Fauci publicly correcting misinformation about this virus, the American people will be even more lacking in leadership. And we cannot afford to lose one more person to the horrors of this virus. 

We must be prepared to fight back against everything that Trump will do during this election, regardless of the outcome. For the sake of us all, but especially the most vulnerable among us, we must not allow him to replace Fauci. We must be prepared to take to the streets and protest, we must be prepared to care for and educate those in our community, and we must be prepared to protect ourselves as best we can.