Coronavirus: Why Dr. Anthony Fauci Chose ‘The Daily Show’ As First Late-Night Interview

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, filmed an interview with The Daily Show host Trevor Noah. The interview will air during Thursday night’s episode at 11 p.m. ET on Comedy Central. The interview is Fauci’s first late-night interview during the coronavirus pandemic and comes as the Trump administration tries to reach younger viewers who might otherwise miss Fauci’s comments on morning talk shows.

In a preview clip from tonight’s episode, Noah mentioned to Fauci that younger people have wrongly convinced themselves they will not be affected by the virus as older people are at a higher risk of dying from COVID-19. Fauci explained that people of all ages can contract the coronavirus, which is responsible for the respiratory illness COVID-19. Fauci said the young are “not absolutely invulnerable.”

“Even though you are young, you are not absolutely invulnerable, for sure, because we’re seeing cases – most of them have some underlying disease – but several don’t, who are young people, 30s, 40s, who are getting sick, getting into the hospital, requiring intensive care,” Fauci explained. “You can get infected with relatively few symptoms, either symptomatic or mild, relatively trivial symptoms, butt hen you can infect another person, who would then infect a vulnerable person. So you have a responsibility, not only to protect yourself, but you almost have a societal, moral responsibility to protect other people.”

The interview is airing as part of an episode called The Daily Social Distancing Show with Trevor Noah. After it airs, it will be available on the show’s social network profiles and its YouTube channel.

Like many other late-night hosts, Noah has been filming his show from his New York apartment. During Monday’s Tonight Show episode, Noah and Jimmy Fallon shared their experiences self-quarantining while trying to host a show. Noah said he was feeling “the stress of what’s happening in the world.”

“I’m worried about what’s gonna happen in the world for people economically. I think on a health level we’re probably gonna get this thing under control,” Noah told Fallon, reports The Hollywood Reporter. “I worry about the effects of just every economy in the world and how that affects the poorest people first.”

In Wednesday’s Daily Show episode, Noah delivered a sharp critique on President Donald Trump for not helping states like New York during the coronavirus crisis. Noah pointed to a recent Daily Beast article that cited a senior White House official who said Trump was not helping New York Governor Andrew Cuomo because Cuomo has criticized Trump’s response.

“Yes, you treat Trump well and he’ll treat you well,” Noah said. “Or as he would call it: a quid pro corona. And so, as mind-boggling as it seems, while New York is in an actual crisis right now, with thousands of lives at stake and people actually dying, Donald Trump is asking people to be polite to him in exchange for his help.”

On Thursday night, the U.S. passed China and Italy for the most coronavirus cases, with more than 83,000. More than 1,200 deaths have been reported in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University.

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