During the last leg of the US Presidential election campaign, President Donald Trump on Sunday evening (local time) suggested to a Florida crowd that he might fire Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading expert on infectious diseases, "after the election", CNN reported.
At the rally, Trump blamed doctors for mishandling COVID-19 and said, "Everyone has heard too much about the pandemic".
As the crowd began chanting "fire Fauci", the President said, "Don't tell anybody but let me wait until a little bit after the election... I appreciate the advice."
This came following Fauci's comments to criticising the Trump administration's response to the pandemic.
Fauci had said the United States needed to make an "abrupt change" in public health practices and behaviours as the country could surpass 100,000 new coronavirus cases a day and predicted rising deaths in the coming weeks, reported.
Trump has time and again accused the American doctors of lying about COVID-19 deaths for financial gain.
"If you have a bad heart and are ready to die or if you have cancer and you are going to be dying soon and you catch COVID-19 -- that happens -- we mark it down to COVID-19. Our doctors get more money if someone dies from COVID. You know that, right," Trump made the allegations just a few days ahead of the Presidential elections.
"Thanks to our relentless efforts -- only 3 per cent of ER (emergency room) visits nationwide are related to the virus. We understand it (COVID-19) now but we are making the turn and vaccines are coming," he added.
( With inputs from ANI )
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