Dr. Anthony Fauci
Dr. Anthony FauciReuters

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, spoke with Financial Times and related to the recent statement by US President Donald Trump, according to which 99 per cent of Covid-19 cases were “harmless”.

“I’m trying to figure out where the president got that number", Dr. Fauci said in the interview, "What I think happened is that someone told him that the general mortality is about 1 per cent. And he interpreted, therefore, that 99 per cent is not a problem, when that’s obviously not the case.”

Facui continued to say that he believes that the confusion comes from the fact that Covid-19 affects people very differently, in a wide spectrum - from asymptomatic carriers to sick patients on ventilators.

“I have never seen a virus or any pathogen that has such a broad range of manifestations,” Fauci told the Financial Times, “Even if it doesn’t kill you, even if it doesn’t put you in the hospital, it can make you seriously ill.”