By Nikhila Natarajan

New York, Jul 14 (IANS): It's official. The White House is headlining a vicious smear campaign against America's top infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, spraying into public view a longlist of "mistakes" Fauci has made since the pandemic began and seeking to undercut the doctor's reputation as the last word on public health during a pandemic that has killed more than 135,000 Americans.

The White House denied that it is slinging "opposition research" on Anthony Fauci's handling of the coronavirus, hours after multiple media outlets received a White House statement detailing a laundry list of Fauci errors.

On Monday, the White House went on the back foot saying it merely "responded" to questions it received from the Washington Post.

IANS reported last week about the Trump White House efforts to sideline Fauci even as it refuses to take a stand on universal masking during an ongoing killer pandemic. The White House West Wing has taken control of Fauci's media appearances from the government platform and instead banished him to the podcast and livestream circuit.

As cases surge to record levels across the southern states, the White House in election year has turned on Fauci, questioning the "number of times Dr. Fauci has been wrong on things", using long-ago comments on the threat from the virus and the use of masks.

US president Trump is reportedly annoyed with Fauci's soaring popularity even as his own polls are tanking to new lows in battleground states crucial to his re-election.

Fauci said in a Financial Times interview last week he had not briefed Trump in two months.

In multiple polls, Fauci trumps the US president in popularity and trust. Since January, Americans' overall confidence in medical scientists has only grown stronger, reflective of society's anxieties during an extraordinary time.

"There's no body count high enough for Donald Trump to listen to the public health experts. If we lose another 10,000, another 20,000, he's not going to do anything differently," former US Education Secretary Arne Duncan told reporters Monday. "It's a man-made catastrophe. Don't listen to Trump. Listen to the local health experts", Duncan told audiences via network television.

As positions harden all around, Trump's twitter thumb is unstoppable.

On Monday morning, he retweeted supporters' messages lamenting the "most outrageous lies" being spread about the coronavirus pandemic and how the economy is tanking because everyone's staying indoors: "Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most, that we are told to trust. I think it's all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. I'm sick of it."