Anthony Fauci (far right) attends a recent White House press briefing on the pandemic (Photo: GETTY IMAGES)

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top expert on infectious disease in the US, said he would never refer to the coronavirus as the "Chinese virus" in a telephone interview with the journal Science published Sunday.

Fauci was asked if he had said or would ever say "China virus", and he gave the answer with an absolute "no". 

US President Donald Trump, in a transparent attempt to divert public attention from his previous negative responses to the coronavirus pandemic, has shifted to calling it the "Chinese virus", which has been widely decried as racist. 

“He goes his own way. He has his own style,” said Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. "But I can’t jump in front of the microphone and push him down."