Anthony Fauci said the health threat from the virus was still “very serious.”.

Fauci made an appearance in the White House briefing room in 2020 — before eventually being banished from public view for his grim assessments of the coronavirus pandemic — he had President Donald J.

Fauci said, pausing for a second.

Fauci said that the health threat from the virus was still “a very serious situation” and called the pandemic “historic, in the very bad sense.”.

Fauci said, is that the current vaccines appear to be effective, though maybe slightly less so, against the new variants.

The bad news, he conceded, is that a virus that is more easily transmitted can ultimately lead to more sickness and death without concerted efforts like mask-wearing and social distancing.

But what he said about the virus on Thursday may have been less important than the mere fact that he was able to say it without the possibility that Mr.

“I don’t want to be going back over history, but it’s very clear that there were things that were said, be it regarding things like hydroxychloroquine and other things like that, that really was uncomfortable because they were not based on scientific fact,” he said, referring to Mr.

Fauci and his colleagues in the nation’s leading health agencies will be given far more leeway to operate without specific orders from the White House.

Fauci spoke to the executive board of the World Health Organization, telling the body that the United States would not be following through with Mr.

Fauci’s appearances in the White House briefing room were often preceded by rambling, contentious meetings in the Oval Office with Mr.

“One of the things that was very clear as recently as about 15 minutes ago when I was with the president is that one of the things that we’re going to do is to be completely transparent open and honest,” he said.

Fauci paused, as if to marvel at what he had just said.

Fauci — who had last appeared in the briefing room in November — had largely disappeared from public view at the end of last year after angering Mr

He smiled and glanced at Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary