WASHINGTON, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, said that he hopes former U.S. President Donald Trump could push his supporters to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, prepares to testify during a hearing of U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions in Washington, D.C., the United States, on Sept. 23, 2020. (Alex Edelman/Pool via Xinhua)

In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Fauci described Trump's influence on his followers as a "game changer" for the U.S. vaccine efforts if the former president encourages them to be inoculated.

Talking about a recent PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll, which showed about half of U.S. men who identified themselves as Republican said they had no plans to get a COVID-19 vaccine, Fauci said that politics needs to be separated from "commonsense, no-brainer" public health measures.