Anthony Stephen Fauci is an acclaimed American Immunologist. He is the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the President’s Chief Medical Advisor. He became the face of reason during the COVID-19 pandemic, warning Americans to take measures to stop the spread of the deadly virus.
Wear a mask, is a phrase we have probably heard a million times with the emergence of the deadly novel Coronavirus. ‘Wear a mask’ the plea, even topped the list of Yale Law School librarian’s list of the most notable quotes of 2020 by Dr Anthony Fauci.
Who is Dr Anthony Fauci?
Anthony Fauci is the renowned director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). He rose to fame in 2020 due to his expertise in dealing with epidemics and became the voice of reason. Americans glued in to watch his rationale advice and scientific information on the deadly coronavirus.
As director of the NIAID since 1984, Dr Fauci has lasted through six presidents and has declined multiple requests to lead his agency’s parent organization, the National Institutes of Health, and partake in politics. He has led federal efforts to combat diseases caused by emerging viruses, including H.I.V., SARS, the 2009 swine pandemic, MERS, Ebola, and now the novel coronavirus. Fauci was an architect of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, started in 2003 by President George W. Bush, to fight H.I.V. globally.
In a 2020 analysis of Google Scholar citations, Dr Fauci ranked as the 32nd most-cited living researcher due to his coronavirus speeches amongst others. According to the Web of Science, Dr Fauci also ranked 9th out of 2.5 million authors in the field of immunology by total citation count between 1980 and January 2021.
Over the years, he has dealt with various infectious diseases that have made him an expert on the subject. Therefore, when America crumbled under misinformation and doubts about Covid-19, Mr Fauci took the initiative to keep the citizens informed and provided safety regulations to curb the virus’s spread. Fauci alerted the Americans at the start of the pandemic to “hunker down significantly more than we as a country are doing.” But, Donald Trump disagreed. “we cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself,” he tweeted.
“Experts like Dr Fauci should be the ones who speak to the public during epidemics”, said Representative Donna E. Shalala of Florida, who was his boss during the Clinton administration, when she led the Department of Health and Human Services.
“I think Tony(Dr Anthony Fauci) is playing the same role that he has in the past, to make sure the science is accurate and clear,” Ms Shalala said, a former American politician and academic. “During a health emergency, it’s the scientists and physicians that are the credible people to the American public, not politicians.”
In July 2020, during the rise of cases in the U.S., Dr Fauci regularly appeared on television news shows, warning that the virus was now spreading exponentially with increasing cases and a high death rate. He offered advice for older adults and those with underlying health conditions who are most at risk, saying they should avoid cruises, flights, and large gatherings of people and try to distance themselves as much as possible socially. He noted down a few simple things that every person can do to minimize the spread of the virus, “There are things you can do now: physically distancing, wearing a mask, avoiding crowds, washing hands. Those things, as simple as they are, can turn it around. And I think we can do that. And that’s what we’ve got to do, looking forward.”
During the Stanford Medicine Event, Fauci pointed to a host of challenges that the nation faces during the pandemic.
“Including the need to devise an effective and widespread vaccine, the need for more early-acting treatments to curb severe infection, and the lack of public health infrastructure for handling an outbreak of such proportions. In addition, even as other countries see a decline in case numbers, many American states are seeing a surge, largely attributable to the fact that the United States never fully shut down”,
While guiding America to remain calm and composed, Fauci has also dealt with a fair share of uncertainty and stress during these trying times, and he says he has always turned to his wife, Christine. She is still his “go-to” person when he has to talk through a challenging issue or needs an outside trusted judgment on a, particularly thorny problem. “She is an amazing, levelheaded, analytical person with a heavy dose of common sense. Also, running has been my major stress reducer for decades. The combination of those two is critical in getting me through highly stressful times.”
In the wake of receiving the vaccine now, he offers some sane advice, “more vaccinations – coupled with mask-wearing and avoiding crowds – would be the best way for the United States to tackle a new, more infectious strain of the coronavirus. If we can get the overwhelming majority of the population vaccinated, we’d be in very good shape and could beat even the mutant,” he said as reported by Reuters.
However, through it, Fauci says, “We will have control over it. Unfortunately, we will have suffered a terrible burden, but it will end, and we will get back to normal, hopefully, sooner rather than later.
I think as a word of hope, people should realize: Don’t despair. The pandemic will end, and we will get control over it.” in his interview Healthline.
