Who is Dr. Anthony Fauci really? Trump’s Bane and America’s Hope

He “predicted” the coronavirus pandemic a year ago, from its inception he has consistently built the image of a reliable and impartial guide to the meanders of COVID-19, there is no resistance to publicly oppose Donald Trump by straightening his statements about the coronavirus, and the Americans – although he does not give them good news – they almost fully trust him. Dr. Anthony Fauci – one of the most prominent experts in infectious diseases in the world and advisor to the US President in the fight against SARS-CoV-2. Who is he and how did he keep his position at the White House for nearly 40 years?

1. Dr. Anthony Fauci is one of the world’s most eminent infectious disease experts and adviser to all U.S. Presidents since Ronald Reagan
2. Since the 80s, he has been working in the structures of the American National Institutes of Health
3. Fauci has played a key role in research into the pathogenesis of AIDS
4. Advised Donald Trump During The Coronavirus Pandemic To Develop A Strategy To Fight COVID-19

National treasure

The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic resulted in many changes in the perception of reality, not only political. One of them is a significant increase in expectations towards the main decision-makers – people who have the greatest influence on creating strategies to fight a problem that has surpassed the whole world. While politicians have aroused the greatest interest in crisis situations so far, this year everyone’s eyes are turned to those who have so far been in the shadow of the rulers – scientists.

It was them – along with heads of state and heads of government – who were on the bench, heard confessions by the media and accounted for the recommendations and forecasts that they passed on to their superiors as pandemic and infectious disease development advisers. Names, until recently quite foreign to an ordinary mortal, and which the world of science has known and valued for years.

One of them is Dr.Anthony Fauci, who has become known as Donald Trump’s adviser, although his history at the White House continues for over 30 years.

See: Anthony Fauci: COVID-19 is my worst nightmare

In the service of health

Anthony Fauci was born in 1940 in New York to an American family with Italian roots. From childhood – though largely accidentally and unconsciously – he associated his life with the health service, helping his parents to run a pharmacy. Ultimately, his choice fell not on the pharmacy that his father had graduated from, but on medicine. To this day, he likes to think back to the moment when he realized that being a doctor was his destiny. It happened on vacation, the year before college, when he was working physically on building the new Cornell Medicine College library.

«During the lunch break, while colleagues were eating sandwiches and whistling at the nurses, I slipped into the auditorium. As I entered and looked around the empty room, I imagined what it would be like to attend this extraordinary institution. I got goosebumps. After a few minutes, a security guard appeared at the door and politely ordered me to leave as I was dirtying the floor. I looked at him and proudly said that next year I would be a student of this university. He laughed and said, “Sure, kid. And next year I will become the police commissioner »».

The bodyguard did not join the ranks of the police, but Fauci not only got into the New York Medical Academy but graduated with honors as the best student of the year. This opened the door to an internship at New York Hospital, in the internal medicine ward. In the same year (1966) he was called up to serve during the Vietnam War. He fulfilled his obligation as part of the public health service, starting cooperation with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which continues to this day. It is there, thanks to joint projects and friendship with Dr. Sheldon M. Wolff, clinical director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, one of the NIH structures), focused his research interests on infectious diseases, allergies and immunology.

50 (0) years of experience

The turning point in Fauci’s career – but also in the field of infectious diseases in general – was the year 1981. At that time, an increase in the incidence of a new, hitherto unknown type of infection, devastating immunity, was observed with concern. Importantly, new cases were diagnosed almost exclusively in homosexual people. Dr. John I. Gallin – another outstanding researcher, a doctor, a long-time director of the NIH Clinical Center, and a private friend of Fauci – recalls – one day he came to him and, revived, began to discuss the new disease, announcing that it would soon explode and cause a worldwide tragedy. (A similar “prophecy” was made by a doctor in mid-2019 during the first edition of “Future of Healthcare”, when asked by Steve Clemons of “The Hill” about the worst-case scenario for public health, he replied that he imagined an infectious disease affecting the respiratory system which is spreading rapidly, adding that it is usually a new type of pandemic flu.)

Zobacz: Fauci “apologizes” for predicting the current pandemic. He talked about her a year ago

Intuition did not confuse Dr. Fauci. AIDS – because we are talking about it – soon began to take its toll. However, the American researcher and his team very quickly began to work on a model of HIV pathogenesis, and the findings over the years formed the basis of further research on the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. He also played a significant role in the development of the famous PEPFAR (The President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief), the American strategy to fight the disease.

The enormous contribution to establishing the mechanisms of AIDS origin and development did not go unnoticed in the highest structures – first in the health service when Fauci became director of NIAID in 1984, then in the government when he was invited to the Oval Office. During Ronald Reagan’s reign, his offer to advise the President of the United States on infectious diseases and epidemic threats continued over the next three decades. Fauci advised all five successive heads of state and we will most likely see him also alongside Joe Biden, who sent him public expressions of appreciation and sympathy during the election campaign.

Katastrofa Trumpa

While the American president-elect speaks about Fauci in superlatives, Trump, leaving the White House, does not hide his aversion to the expert. In recent months, when their cooperation had to tighten for obvious reasons, he did not shy away from public teasing, calling his adviser a “catastrophe”, claiming that “people are tired of listening to Fauci and all those idiots” or adorning the researcher with epithets like “nice man” , it’s been here for 500 years ».

In a way, the doctor “deserved” the president’s reluctance. Almost from the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, he dampened the enthusiasm of his boss, when he boasted about a decrease in the number of deaths, stubbornly straightened the words of Trump, who in conversations with the media distorted the facts and downplayed the threat, and honestly admitted that as decision-makers (also he, as an adviser) they could do more and be more assertive in planning and enforcing the restrictions.

The expert’s comments from July this year poured out the bitterness, as the situation in the US began to deteriorate again. Fauci said there was no reason to be complacent by openly hitting the president’s narrative. As a result, several of the doctor’s appearances in the media were canceled, and Trump ruthlessly began to publicly point out mistakes and inconsistencies in his recommendations. However, the conflict with the expert did not prevent us from using – without Fauci’s consent – his statement in the election spot of the incumbent president. The words taken out of context suggested that the head of state is coping well with the COVID-19 pandemic. Fauci was indignant.

«I do not and will never publicly support any political candidate. Here I am, squeezed into the middle of the election campaign. It’s outrageous. By saying, “God, we did this seven days a week. I don’t think we can do more than that, ”I meant the exhaustive work of the task force,” he said in an interview with CBS.

The discussion took place mostly in the media, because – as the expert said – he has limited access to the president since the beginning of October, does not talk to him on political issues, and Trump consistently ignores his advice. The latter, moreover, did not intend to straighten anything, and in return suggested that he would dismiss the adviser from his post after the presidential election. Some harshly comment on these words today and regret that Trump will not have the opportunity to see how complicated the process is (Fauci is a civil servant and his appeal triggers an avalanche of procedures).

On the surface

Although Dr. Anthony Fauci enjoys great support and public trust, the conflict with Trump has also made him enemies. He became one of the “heroes” of the protests that called for a boycott of the isolation recommendations and the dismissal of an expert (#FireFauci). It even went so far that the president’s advisers were threatened with death and his family was repeatedly insulted and harassed because of his views.

This is not the first time that the courageous actions of the researcher have met with opposition from part of the society. In the 80s, as the director of NIAD, he faced LGBTQ activists who protested against the government’s actions to stem the development of AIDS. Faust was accused of incompetence and servility to the authorities. However, the dispute lasted several years with full success, and the researcher’s effort to go out to the LGBTQ community and try to find a common solution to the problem was appreciated by her.

Will this also be the end of the current fight against the coronavirus pandemic? Over the years of his work in public health, Dr. Anthony Fauci has convinced America of one thing: whatever happens and whoever tries to direct it, he will always stay afloat. AIDS, swine flu, SARS, MERS, Ebola or COVID-19; Reagan, George HW Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama, Trump or Biden – nearly 80-year-old Fauci has seen, heard and experienced so much that he knows that recognition lasts as long as there is no new crisis.

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