Top physician Fauci stops appearing on TV as US moves to reopen economy

United States' top infectious disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, has conspicuously been absent from national television interviews over the last two weeks -- in the wake of the White House moving to reopening the economy.

In recent weeks, the White House has refocussed its message on reopening the country amid the economic havoc wreaked by the virus -- with the absence of the nation's top physicians from the conversation.

Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had regularly been appearing on national news programmes to update people on the country's fight against the coronavirus. He last gave a television interview when he spoke to CNN on May 4.

Fauci's absence comes as the newly implemented White House communications team has changed its public relations strategy for the pandemic.

Fauci testified remotely before the Senate last week. He was also present at Trump's "Operation Warp Speed" briefing last Friday, when the administration detailed a plan to roll out an eventual vaccine

But Fauci did not appear for interviews to discuss the promising results shown by a vaccine developed by the biotech company Moderna in partnership with the National Institutes of Health, which Fauci's NIAID falls under.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump, who previously held freewheeling news conferences, has also stopped doing so on a daily basis following an effort among aides and allies who believed the briefings damaged him politically.