Tony's Diary Package — page 881

(NIH/NIAID) [E] <gfolkers@niaid.nih.gov>; Elisabeth Gunningham <eg01@uw.edu> Subject: Thank you message from King Holmes, for Dr Anthony Fauci Dear Tony, Thank you so very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to record and forward that very kind and complimentary birthday video in time for my September 1st Birthday. I have been one of your many fans since the earliest days of the AIDS crisis. Your support via the NIH, especially in building our Department of Global Health, has enabled the University of Washington to have national and international impact in many ways. It is especially meaningful to have a trusted, respected, and talented colleague like yourself offer such a wonderful tribute. I certainly return your regard, with much appreciation! After we received your video, I was telling my assistant about the days when you were taking on leadership at NIH, and how you appointed me to chair one of the new committees you formed. What a fantastic opportunity that was, and how many of my greatest friendships were begun and deepened in those early days of the NIHAIDS initiatives for research, prevention, and treatment of HIV/AIDS and HIV/AIDS coinfections. It's hard to believe that we have come so far in de-stigmatizing STDs and HIV/AIDS, and have successfully advocated for higher funding priorities at the national and international levels for all such infectious diseases over the course of our careers. On that note, I have also been following your work on the current pandemic with much interest and great respect. Your own career has spanned such a prodigious era of infectious disease research, from Ebola to the current pandemic, and your reputation as a reliable, straight shooting, "scientist's scientist" is fully deserved. You have navigated difficult political waters and public anti-scient biases with aplomb and at the NIH have kept a steady hand on the tiller as we navigated the most recent rise of an entirely new pandemic virus, demonstrating principled and fact-based scientific rigor at every stage. Your example serves to educate everyday citizens to the merits and reasonable expectations of science and the scientific process, thus becoming an ambassador for science to new generations, as well as to a few older ones - who seem to have embraced your wisdom with more than the usual enthusiasm Scientists engender. New fans of yours now "Fauci" (i.e. lose the phone number of) a date who doesn't wear a mask or refuses to get vaccinated. Now that is a practical public health trend! I must admit that I have succumbed to the Fauci fandom that has (justifiably) arisen in your wake. A few months ago, I was proudly wearing my Fauci socks when my son, King Jr. came over to join me for a walk - and showed me his own Tony Fauci socks. Clearly, I have taught my kids (and grandkids) well.