In a wide-ranging interview with STAT News, Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the number of his meetings with President Trump have “dramatically decreased” even as the novel coronavirus pandemic rages on throughout the country. “We used to have task force meetings every single day, including Saturday and Sunday, and about 75 percent of the time after the task force meeting we’d meet with the president,” said Fauci. “So I was meeting with him four times a week back, a month or so ago.” But not only have the White House Coronavirus Task Force meetings become less frequent, Fauci said his one-on-one chats with the president have dwindled. On a brighter note, Fauci said he remains optimistic that work to produce a vaccine in record time, even by the end of the year is “aspirational, but it’s certainly doable.”