White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci had little patience for claims his messages in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic were being restricted by the Trump administration, a tranche of newly public emails shows.
The more than 3,200 pages of emails, obtained by BuzzFeed News and covering a period between January and June 2020, are dotted with messages to Fauci from public health experts and ordinary Americans alike asking variations of the same question: “Have you been muzzled?”
That’s the subject line of a March 1, 2020, email to Fauci from a man named Thomas Murray, who describes himself as a “nuclear/aerospace engineer who subsequently obtained an MPH [Master of Public Health degree] at the University of Washington.”
“The news media is reporting that the White House has muzzled you. Is that true?” asked Murray, who further asked Fauci to “let me know if I should stay silent or become noisy.”
As COVID-19 started becoming a threat last year, Dr. Anthony Fauci started receiving emails from people asking if he was being censored by the Trump administration. He denied the assertions.
Source: Fauci denied being ‘muzzled’ by Trump early in pandemic, emails show