Scott Atlas calls Fauci a ‘political animal’ and accuses him of favoring Biden

Dr Scott Atlas, Donald Trump's chief coronavirus adviser and the man who replaced Dr Anthony Fauci as the face of the White House's coronavirus response efforts, called his predecessor a "political animal."

Dr Atlas suggested Dr Fauci "lost his credibility" by painting a more positive picture of the state of the pandemic in response to Joe Biden's electoral victory. 

The comments were made during an episode of the Fox News program "The Ingraham Angle."

“There’s all kinds of prognostications that were made — all negative, all to undermine what the reality of the timelines were, all to undermine the president,” Dr Atlas said. “And I think, you know, once you do that sort of thing and make yourself a political animal, basically, you lose your credibility.”

Dr Atlas was referencing two interviews Dr Fauci gave, one before the election, and one after. He claims Dr Fauci had a more dire perspective on the virus prior to Mr Biden's election, but changed his tune to paint a brighter picture of the nation's future.  

In October, Dr Fauci said he was "cautiously optimistic" that the US would have a definitive answer on vaccine development by November or December.  

Prior to the interview Dr Atlas cites as evidence of Dr Fauci's politically motivated messaging, news broke from Pfizer that its coronavirus vaccine was "strongly effective."  

Dr Atlas suggested that perhaps Dr Fauci "cheered up because of the election."  

The animosity between the doctors is not a one-way street.  

Dr Fauci has criticised Dr Atlas directly and indirectly in the past. Dr Atlas is a proponent of defeating coronavirus through herd immunity - which would require more than 60 per cent of the nation's population to become infected,  possibly resulting in hundreds of thousands of more deaths.  

Dr Fauci has called herd immunity both dangerous and nonsensical.

Dr Atlas does not have a background in infectious diseases despite leading the nation's response to the pandemic.  

Dr Fauci has insinuated that the other doctors on the White House task force have worked together to fight the pandemic, but Dr Atlas has been a disruptor.  

“Most are working together. I think you know who the outlier is.” Dr Fauci said during an interview on CNN. “You know my differences with Dr. Atlas, I’m always willing to sit down and talk with him and see if we could resolve those differences.”