May 3, 2020 (Sunday) - Global - 3,300,000/230,000; USA - 1,130,000/66,000
Tony's Diary Package, pp.145-161 · fauci_diary:entry:00126
Page text: p.145, p.146, p.147, p.148, p.149, p.150, p.151, p.152 · original PDF
- Date
- 2020-05-03 00:00 (day precision)
- Type
- diary entry · diary
- author
- Anthony S. Fauci
May 3, 2020 (Sunday) - Global - 3,300,000/230,000; USA - 1,130,000/66,000
Continued big push tio re-open despite many states lacking the criteria to do so.
Not on any Sunday shows. Washington Post article today states that the
administration is cutting down media appearances by Deb and me and giving more
to the economists, Kudlow, Mnuychin and Hassett. Theyare cutting me more
than Deb.
Fauci-maddness continues with multiple articles and every sort of paraphernalia
and restaurant and foods named after me.
Amazing aryicle in USA Today:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/03/coronavirus-white-houseexpert-dr-anthony-fauci-americans-trust/3042991001/
Straight-talking Dr. Anthony
Fauci is the voice
Americans want to hear
right now. So, who is he?
Marco della Cava
USA TODAY
AD
5:37
Dr. Anthony Stephen Fauci didn't grow up wanting to be famous. Mostly he
just wanted to make a difference. But now a lifetime of service has flicked on a
searing spotlight.
Perhaps not since the late actor Jack Palance did one-armed push-ups at the
1991 Oscars at age 73 - YouTube it, millennials - has the nation been this
seduced by a senior citizen.
By virtue of his calm, Brooklyn-inflected White House briefings
on coronavirus that frequently if diplomatically contradict statements by
President Donald Trump, Fauci, 79, has become a meme, spawned fan clubs
and been lovingly parodied by Brad Pitt.
Fauci's longtime official title is director of the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases, a part of the National Institutes of Health. But since
becoming the face of this country's COVID-19 pandemic, the career
immunologist who has battled everything from AIDS to Ebola
is increasingly referred to as America's Doctor.
And he's in the headlines again this week, having been barred by the White
House from addressing House lawmakers Wednesday on the topic of the
administration's response to the crisis. Instead, Fauci will meet with a GOP-led
subcommittee on May 12.
So just who is Tony Fauci?
Interviews with friends and colleagues offer overlapping descriptions of a man
as dedicated to hard work - endless hours peppered with power walks - as he is
to his wife, scientist Christine Grady, and three accomplished daughters.
They describe a man who takes as much pride in his Bolognese pasta sauce (the
key, one friend says, is the long-simmering time) as he does in enduring
relationships. He's a burger and beer at the bar guy, but also a public servant
built for our trying times.
"Tony's capable of elevating his game to whatever is needed, and more has
been demanded of him now than in any time in his career," says Michael
Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious
Disease Research and Policy. "In the eyes of the American public, he's the
voice we need right now, one of credibility."
infolded in the US
Steven Gabbe met Fauci when both were at Cornell Medical College in New
York City in the late 1960s, and "the person you see now on TV is the same
guy I met back then, smart and humble."
Gabbe, emeritus CEO of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in
Columbus, lauds his friend's sense of humor. "I'm sure he finds it entertaining
that there are bobblehead dolls of him now," he says. "But he's so grounded I
don't think it would go to his head."
Fauci would be excused it if did. In a recent survey of 1,900 registered U.S.
voters, Morning Consult asked respondents whom they would trust "a lot" or
"some" to end social distancing. Fauci and the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention topped the list among all voters with 71% trust ratings.
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Three months in:A timeline of how COVID-19 has unfolded in the US
Such a high-profile status inevitably also has generated criticism.
Right-wing pundits have assailed how shelter-in-place guidelines he supported
have impacted the economy, leading conservative internet TV host Bill
Mitchell to tweet "this Dr. Doom Fauci is the most depressing idiot I've ever
listened to."
That harsh assessment has some grounding in a real issue, says Jonathan Engel,
professor at the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch
College, part of the City University of New York system.
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"Cost-benefit analysis is not the way Fauci thinks, he's a physician and
immunologist," says Engel. "So that's where the frustration in some red states
comes from. You're saving lives, but you're also destroying lives. Someone
else needs to be there to step back and think about the whole picture, but that's
not Fauci's role."
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Critics ask: Did Fauci 'miss it'?
Even some fellow scientists who praise Fauci's professional accomplishments
suggest not only that he was late sounding the alarm, but that having one
celebrated virus point person is dangerous.
"In January, February and part of March there was one physician on show after
show, him, and while he's great at explaining things, in terms of telling the
country to get prepared, he missed it," says Marty Makary, professor at the
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "My concern is not with
Anthony Fauci as much as it is in a media and policy world that puts its faith in
one person."
A SECON?
OPINION...
If anything, Fauci's rise highlights the fact that no one person regardless of
their stature - his laurels include almost every scientific accolade short of a
Nobel Prize - should hold all the reins when it comes to national and global
pandemics.
"Tony's taken on this big role in part because of the vacuum that exists," says
David Relman, a Fauci friend and professor of medicine at Stanford University.
"But what if the next pandemic destroys our food? Or a bioterror attack?" he
says. "We need a new leadership system that sits inside the White House,
where people have the authority to tell the Attorney General what to do, or the
Federal Reserve or the Secretary of Defense, so you can move fast. Tony can't
do that. No one can. The system needs to change."
Fauci's current national stature indeed appears unique in U.S. history, says
historian Douglas Brinkley of Rice University in Houston, citing past examples
that fall short.
In the late 1700s, a yellow fever outbreak in Philadelphia caused President
George Washington to flee the city, leaving in charge the preeminent doctor
and fellow Founding Father, Benjamin Rush.
When President Woodrow Wilson got sick while visiting Paris during World
War I, many scholars believe his physician and his wife were running the
country for a spell.
"So you have moments when doctors have become the voice of the country, but
nothing like this," says Brinkley. "The straight talking Fauci is what you want
to hear, much like if you go to a doctor you don't want spin or blarney."
Brinkley says after the coronavirus pandemic starts to recede, Fauci is likely to
go down in history "as one of few scientists who are now household names."
Some suggest Fauci enjoys this new spotlight too much. Although an NIAID
press officer said Fauci was too busy for an interview, the doctor's media
appearances are frequent and varied, from network news and comedy shows to
online interviews with sports icons such as basketball star Steph Curry.
Fauci Pouchys and 'Docta Fauci'
And yet the public can't seem to get enough. The Anthony Fauci Fan Club on
Twitter has 24,000 followers and a pinned tweet that reads: "If you don't have
a crush on this man, do you even care about public health?"
New York-based singer Missy Modell rewrote the lyrics to Lady Gaga's
2008 hit "Paparazzi" to rhyme with "Docta Fauci." Her Instagram hit includes
the line, "Tony, there's no other superstar except for Andy," New York
governor Andrew Cuomo.
Fauci's likeness is splashed on coffee mugs, T-shirts and even donuts. In
Washington, D.C., the town Fauci calls home, Capo's Speakeasy teamed up
with a real estate company to sell Fauci Pouchy to-go drinks, cocktails in seethrough sealed bags emblazoned with the doctor's image.
At Chef Geoff's in northwest D.C., Fauci and his wife, a nurse bioethicist at the
NIH, are regulars who in pre-virus times would pull up bar stools and order
Chef Geoff Burgers and beers, says owner Geoff Tracy. He posted a sign
warning take-out customers, "Dr. Antony Fauci is a long time guest and he
wants SIX FEET."
"He's a genuinely nice human being, and I deal with a lot who aren't
sometimes," says Tracy, whose wife, CBS anchor Norah O'Donnell, has
interviewed Fauci over the years. Tracy says Fauci's sudden ascent into the pop
culture firmament doesn't surprise him. But he doubts it phases Fauci.
DR ANTHONY MAUCI IS A Lomo
TIME GUEST AND HE WANTS
SIX FEET
Pom THE GAPOTY Ge ak OF Un oer
BAO
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Ge he ec, Boe
=
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--
"My father-in-law is an infectious disease doctor, and these guys not about
picking fights or the limelight," says Tracy. "They're about sharing information
and guiding you. And no one's better at that than Tony."
Fauci recently told an interviewer he appreciated the way "classy" actor Brad
Pitt played him on a recent Saturday Night Live stay-at-home broadcast, this
after Fauci said in an interview that Pitt would be his top choice for someone to
impersonate him on the show. But friends note celebrities don't really phase
him.
Stanford professor Relman, who focuses on microbiology and immunology,
recalls talking to Fauci about the time U2 singer Bono, who has focused his
philanthropy on Africa, wanted to discuss disease issues with Fauci.
vernors
"Tony thought it would cause too big a scene at the NIH, so he just told Bono
to come over to his house," says Relman. "Bono did, but Tony forgot that that
might completely freak out his daughters, which it did. Those are just his
circles. His ability to talk honestly about important matters causes people to
seek him out."
Study:Americans trust Fauci more than Trump or their own governors
Fauci's hoop dreams dashed by height
Fauci grew up in Brooklyn the grandson of Italian immigrants. His parents ran
a pharmacy. He did deliveries on his bicycle, while his older sister Denise ran
the register.
In past interviews, Fauci hasn't revealed much about his hard-working
upbringing except to say that it laid the foundation for a life ultimately devoted
to science and public service.
Fauci went to Regis High School in Manhattan, which required commuting for
hours on buses and subways. Although a stand-out basketball player, his height,
5-foot-7, prompted him to look for a career outside sports.
For college, he attended Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, which like
Regis was run by Jesuits, whose educational philosophy seeks to meld
spirituality - Fauci is a lifelong Catholic - with social justice.
The experience was formative, says Eric Goosby, a distinguished professor of
medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, who met Fauci in the
1980s and has been a frequent guest at his friend's pasta Bolognese dinners.
("He'll call me days before to make sure I'm still coming," he says with a
laugh.)
"Tony was deeply affected by exposure to the Jesuit order, which fostered in
him a self-expectation of service," says Goosby. "This guy goes to sleep and
wakes up asking, 'Have I done everything I can do?' It's in his DNA."
As is a fierce work ethic. In summers during college, Fauci worked
construction. As the story goes, one job found him helping on a new building at
the Cornell Medical College. Fauci vowed one day he would be an alum, and
made it happen.
"That story says it all to me," says his friend Gabbe. "He just has this powerful
drive that won't be stopped. The same thing happened when he graduated and
told people he was going to the NIH to study infectious diseases. People told
him they were all conquered, this was a career-killer move. Not long after,
AIDS hit."
Fauci's role in the AIDS epidemic changed him. At first, he tackled the
growing crisis with a measured, data-driven approach to trying to find a
treatment. But that methodical tack infuriated gay activists watching friends die
daily.
"Initially, Fauci was very rigid in his approach to AIDS and people like (gay
rights activist and playwright) Larry Kramer got in his face, calling him the
worst things," says Baruch College professor Engel, who wrote "The Epidemic:
A Global History of AIDS." "And to Fauci's credit, he got it and he changed."
Fauci had been seen as the detached scientific face of an uncaring
administration led by President Ronald Reagan, late to understanding the scope
of the AIDS crisis. Fauci started to meet with members of the gay rights
community and quickly understood the need to include those who were
suffering in finding a solution.
Goosby, who was running of one the nation's first AIDS clinics in the late '80s,
recalls attending a meeting with Fauci in Washington, D.C. The gathering was
attacked by ACT UP activists, who locked the meeting's attendees, there to
discuss new drugs to fight HIV, inside the hall with chains.
"A lot of us were nervous and scared of possible violence," Goosby recalls.
"But Tony looked at us and said, 'This is our chance to learn about the
frustrations of the community. It's an opportunity for us to learn and serve.' I'll
never forget that."
Fauci turned enemies into allies
That shift in attitude - away from the rigidity of scientific pursuits and towards
an embrace of the human reality - soon turned enemies into lifelong friends,
says Matt Sharp, a San Francisco-based AIDS survivor and activist who was
part of many ACT UP protests in the nation's capital aimed at calling out
Fauci.
"What developed was a very interesting mutual respect, where you have a hero
who once was an enemy," says Sharp. "Once we got him to relate to us and our
reality, trust was established. Today, the AIDS community is glad he's the one
leading this effort right now."
Over what is now nearly a 50-year career with the NIH, Fauci has worked for
presidents as philosophically wide-ranging as Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill
Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, helping them through crises that
included the post-9/11 anthrax scares, SARS in 2003, H1N1 in 2009 and Ebola
in 2014.
Those who know Fauci marvel at how he keeps his political leanings private.
"I honestly don't know if he's a Democrat or Republican," says Sharp. "But I
know he's got an amazing grace and an ability to cut through the b-----. That's
his genius."
That skill is particularly valuable now, as Fauci continues to navigate his truthtelling role for a president whose response to criticism often is dismissal.
"He has always had a knack for telling it like it is, and letting the political chips
fall where they may," says Stanford's Relman. "Don't forget, Tony Fauci is
proud card-carrying New Yorker. He has a blunt, endearing and no-nonsense
New York attitude, and I think Trump kind of gets that."
Indeed, a brief #FireFauci firestorm that flared in the wake of Fauci appearing
to show exasperation at the president's coronavirus remarks ended with Trump
saying Fauci wasn't going anywhere.
That's probably just fine with Fauci. He may not get much sleep these days,
and he's contending with political forces dueling over just how much reopening
the country will lead to another coronavirus case spike and then more shutdowns.
But friends insist he'd wouldn't want to be anywhere other than in this hot seat.
Says Osterholm of the University of Minnesota: "I would go so far as to say
Tony's been the right man for the job for several decades now."
The recipe for that success perhaps can be found in remarks Fauci made around
this time in 2016 to the graduating class at Ohio State University.
Fauci started out by telling the graduates - in his trademark Brooklyn patois
that made "honor" sound like on-AH and "poverty" like PAW-vaty - that if
they're like him, they'll soon forget every word their commencement speaker
said.
Then over the next 12 succinct minutes, Fauci laid out five credos to live by:
Be a perpetual student, expect the unexpected, embrace public service, lead by
example, and, finally, pursue happiness.
As prescriptions go, Fauci has taken his own medicine. When he is at that West
Wing lectern, he seems to radiate a sense of satisfaction at simply being of
service despite the attendant slings and arrows of the post.
"Different pursuits provide joy," Fauci urged the gradates. "Find your source of
joy, and embrace it."
................................................................................................
.....
Important and somewhat ridiculous issue with Pence wanting to come to NIH
to thank the people at VRC and show his appreciation. He got into trouble at
Mayo Clinic last week since he went there and did not wear a mask when
everyone lse had a mask on and the press killed him. I had an agreement with
Marc Short that the VP would come to the VRC on Tuesday , April 5 and go
upstairs and meet the scientists. The rules of VRC are that masks must be
worn in the labs. Marc said that the VP would wear a mask in the labs, but
when we go downstairs to the lobby to have TF meeting followed by presser,
that he would not have to wear a mask since we never wear masks at TF
New York Times and
among several.
142,000/67,000
~ to thank people in the
meetings. All was well until Olivia Troye called me in a panic today saying
that the POTUS does not want the VP to wear a mask since it is a bad optic for
opening up (I cannot understand this reasoning). Nonetheless , the VP will not
wear a mask and so we are saying that he should not come. I refuse to give in.
Poor Olivia is caught in the middle. We shall see what happens.
PRESS: Several articles about me in print papers - New York Times and
Washington Post among several.
Links shared
- news https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/03/coronavirus-white-houseexpert-dr-anthony-fauci-americans-trust/3042991001/