Shortly after top U.S. immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci said the “pandemic phase” of COVID-19 was over in the U.S., he came out and said it wasn’t over.
With the matter settled, Fauci then decided to cancel his attendance at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, which was held Saturday. Fauci was invited by ABC News “and had planned on going,” CNN reported, but he “decided to abandon those plans and inform ABC that he would no longer attend because of an individual assessment of his own personal risk.”
The annual bash, which draws politicos and journalists to the Washington Hilton, went on as scheduled, with nearly all of the 2,500 attendees packed in a ballroom going maskless.
Fauci’s decision to avoid the swanky event came after another similar fete, the annual Gridiron Dinner held last month, turned out to be a super spreader, with more than 80 attendees coming down with the virus. Fauci attended that affair but apparently had second thoughts about packing into a room with a bunch of unmasked people.
Or did he?
A maskless Fauci was photographed attending a packed pre-dinner brunch on Saturday afternoon.
@donlemon, Dr. #TonyFauci, and @CapehartJ at the 2022 White House Correspondents' #GardenBrunch @whca pic.twitter.com/JmRkVZo0rq
— White House Insider (@whcinsider) April 30, 2022
Hundreds attended the brunch, according to one report.
“At the 27th Annual White House Correspondents’ Weekend Garden Brunch, the most buzzworthy attendee was Anthony Fauci, who said earlier this week that he would not attend the dinner over Covid concerns,” Twitchy reported.
Fauci even did an interview in which he (kinda) said it was all over while saying “we still gotta’ be careful.”
Dr. #TonyFauci is glad to see people coming out after a stressful two and a half years and doing so safely. #GardenBrunch @whca pic.twitter.com/HfbyEQfzae
— White House Insider (@whcinsider) April 30, 2022
Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer had some fun on Twitter.
“Fauci bailed on attending the White House Correspondents’ Dinner because of ‘individual assessment of my personal risk.’ …so he just went to the crowed (sic) pre-parties,” he said.
Fauci bailed on attending the White House Correspondents’ Dinner because of “individual assessment of my personal risk." …..so he just went to the crowed pre-parties #WHCD pic.twitter.com/OEkX9OuYHL
— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) May 1, 2022
Last Tuesday, Fauci declared the “pandemic phase” of COVID-19 is over.
But that was refuted on Wednesday — by Fauci.
On Tuesday, Fauci sat down with Judy Woodruff of “PBS NewsHour,” who asked Fauci: “Here we are. It’s the end of April. It’s the spring of 2022. How close are we to the end of the pandemic?”
“We are certainly, right now, in this country out of the pandemic phase,” Fauci replied. “Namely, we don’t have 900,000 new infections a day and tens and tens and tens of thousands of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths. We are at a low level right now.”
“So, if you’re saying, are we out of the pandemic phase in this country, we are,” he added.
Well, that’s pretty clear.
But on Wednesday, Fauci walked it all back.
“We are in a different moment of the pandemic,” Fauci told the Associated Press. While the U.S. has “decelerated and transitioned into more of a controlled phase” of the virus, he added “by no means does that mean the pandemic is over.”
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.