Anthony Fauci
Anthony Stephen Fauci (; born December 24, 1940) is an American physician-scientist and immunologist serving as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Chief Medical Advisor to the President. As a physician with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Fauci has served the American public health sector in various capacities for more than fifty years and has acted as an advisor to every U.S. president since Ronald Reagan. He has been director of the NIAID since 1984 and has made contributions to HIV/AIDS research and other immunodeficiency diseases, both as  a research scientist and as the head of the NIAID. From 1983 to 2002, Fauci was one of the world's most frequently cited scientists across all scientific journals. In 2008, President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States, for his work on the AIDS relief program PEPFAR. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he served under President Donald Trump as one of the lead members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Fauci's advice was frequently contradicted by Trump, and Trump's supporters alleged that Fauci was trying to  politically undermine Trump's run for reelection. Some falsely claimed he was involved in creating the virus in a Chinese lab. After Joe Biden took office, Fauci began serving as one of the lead members of the White House COVID-19 Response Team and as Biden's chief medical advisor. Early life and education. Anthony Fauci was born on December 24, 1940, in Brooklyn, New York City, to Eugenia Lillian ("née" Abys; 1909–1965) and Stephen A. Fauci (1910–2008). His father was a Columbia University-educated pharmacist who owned his own pharmacy. Fauci's mother and sister worked the pharmacy's register  and Fauci delivered prescriptions. The pharmacy was located in the Dyker Heights section of Brooklyn, directly beneath the family apartment, previously in the Bensonhurst neighborhood. Fauci's grandparents immigrated to the United States from Italy in the late 19th century. His paternal grandparents, Antonino Fauci and Calogera Guardino, were from Sciacca, and his maternal grandparents were from Naples. His maternal grandmother Raffaella Trematerra was a seamstress, and his maternal grandfather Giovanni Abys was a Swiss-born artist noted for his landscape and portrait painting, magazine illustrations in Italy, as well as graphic design for commercial labels, including olive oil cans . Fauci grew up Catholic, but now considers himself a humanist, stating that he thinks "that there are a lot of things about organized religion that are unfortunate, and [that he tends] to like to stay away from it." In 2021, he was named Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association. Fauci attended Regis High School, a private Jesuit school in Manhattan's Upper East Side, where he captained the school's basketball team despite standing only tall. After graduating in 1958, Fauci attended the College of the Holy Cross, graduating in 1962 with a Bachelor of Arts degree  in classics with a pre-med track. Fauci then attended Cornell University's Medical College (now Weill Cornell Medicine), graduating with a Doctor of Medicine degree in 1966 ranked first in his class. He then did an internship and residency in internal medicine at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center (now Weill Cornell Medical Center). Career. After completing his medical residency in 1968, Fauci joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a clinical associate in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases's (NIAID) Laboratory of Clinical Investigation (LCI). He became head of the LCI's Clinical Physiology  Section in 1974, and in 1980 was appointed chief of the NIAID's Laboratory of Immunoregulation. He became director of the NIAID in 1984, a position he still holds. Fauci has been offered the position of director of the NIH several times, but has declined each time. Fauci has been at the forefront of U.S. efforts to contend with viral diseases like HIV/AIDS, SARS, the Swine flu, MERS, Ebola, and COVID-19. He played a significant role in the early 2000s in creating the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and in driving development of biodefense drugs and  vaccines following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Fauci has been a visiting professor at many medical centers and has received numerous honorary doctorates from universities in the U.S. and abroad. Medical achievements. Fauci has made important scientific observations that contributed to the understanding of the regulation of the human immune response and is recognized for delineating the mechanisms whereby immunosuppressive agents adapt to that response. He developed therapies for formerly fatal diseases such as polyarteritis nodosa, granulomatosis with polyangiitis, and lymphomatoid granulomatosis. In a 1985 Stanford University Arthritis Center Survey, members of the American Rheumatism Association ranked Fauci's work on  the treatment of polyarteritis nodosa and granulomatosis with polyangiitis as one of the most important advances in patient management in rheumatology over the previous 20 years. Fauci has contributed to the understanding of how HIV destroys the body's natural defense system, progressing to AIDS. He has outlined the mechanisms of induction of HIV expression by endogenous cytokines. Fauci has worked to develop strategies for the therapy and immune reconstitution of patients with the disease, as well as for a vaccine to prevent HIV infection. His current research is concentrated on identifying the nature of the immunopathogenic mechanisms of HIV  infection and the scope of the body's immune responses to HIV. In 2003, the Institute for Scientific Information stated that from 1983 to 2002, "Fauci was the 13th most-cited scientist among the 2.5 to 3.0 million authors in all disciplines throughout the world who published articles in scientific journals." As a government scientist under seven presidents, Fauci has been described as "a consistent spokesperson for science, a person who more than any other figure has brokered a generational peace" between the two worlds of science and politics. HIV/AIDS epidemic. In a 2020 interview with "The Guardian", Fauci  remarked, "My career and my identity has really been defined by HIV." He was one of the leading researchers during the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s. In 1981, he and his team of researchers began looking for a vaccine or treatment for this novel virus, though they would meet a number of obstacles. In October 1988, protesters came to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Fauci, who had become the institute's director in 1984, bore the brunt of the anger from the LGBTQ+ community who were largely ignored by the government. Leading AIDS activist Larry Kramer  attacked Fauci relentlessly in the media. He called him an "incompetent idiot" and a "pill-pushing" tool of the medical establishment. Fauci did not have control over drug approval though many people felt he was not doing enough. Fauci did make an effort in the late 1980s to reach out to the LGBTQ+ community in New York and San Francisco to find ways he and the NIAID could find a solution. Though Fauci was initially admonished for his treatment of the AIDS epidemic, his work in the community was eventually acknowledged. Kramer, who had spent years hating Fauci for his  treatment of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, eventually called him "the only true and great hero" among government officials during the AIDS crisis. In 2014, Sean Strub of "HuffPost" criticized Fauci for "delaying promotion of an AIDS treatment that would have prevented tens of thousands of deaths in the first years of the epidemic" and accused him of "rewriting history." Political commentator Helen Andrews defended Fauci's actions during the epidemic in a 2021 article, writing: 2009 swine flu pandemic. In a meeting with reporters on September 17, 2009, Fauci predicted that the H1N1 virus causing the 2009 swine flu pandemic  could infect as many as one in three Americans, more than the amount of Americans usually infected by the seasonal flu. Ebola congressional hearing. On October 16, 2014, in a United States congressional hearing regarding the Ebola virus crisis, Fauci, who, as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) had been discussing the importance of screening for weeks, testified that NIAID was still some distance away from producing sufficient quantities of cures or vaccines for widespread trials. Specifically, Fauci said, "While NIAID is an active participant in the global effort to address the public health  emergency occurring in west Africa, it is important to recognize that we are still in the early stages of understanding how infection with the Ebola virus can be treated and prevented." Fauci also remarked in the hearing: "As we continue to expedite research while enforcing high safety and efficacy standards, the implementation of the public health measures already known to contain prior Ebola virus outbreaks and the implementation of treatment strategies such as fluid and electrolyte replacement is essential to preventing additional infections, treating those already infected, protecting healthcare providers, and ultimately bringing this epidemic to an end." COVID-19 pandemic . Trump administration. Fauci was a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force established in late January 2020, under President Donald Trump, to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. He became a de facto public health spokesperson for the office of the president during the pandemic, and a strong advocate for ongoing social distancing efforts in the United States. In interviews on January 21, January 26, and February 17, Fauci commented on COVID-19. He said that at the time of the interviews ("right now"), COVID-19 was not a "major threat" to the American public, with the risk to the American public  being "low", but that it was "an evolving situation", and that "public health officials need to take [COVID-19] very seriously". In the latter interview, Fauci said that COVID-19 could become a "global pandemic which would then have significant implications for" the United States. In March 2020, he predicted that the infection fatality rate would likely be close to 1%, which was ten times more severe than the 0.1% reported rate for seasonal flu. In a March 8, 2020, interview, Fauci stated that "right now in the United States, people [who are not infected] should not be walking around with masks , but if you want to do it, that's fine". In the same interview, Fauci said that buying masks "could lead to a shortage of masks for the people who really need" them: "When you think masks, you should think of healthcare providers needing them". When Fauci made this comment, America's top surgical mask maker was struggling to produce enough masks to meet the increased demand. On April 3, the CDC reversed course, quoting recent studies that showed asymptomatic transmission of the virus, thus advocating for the public to wear non-surgical masks to reduce community transmission, while Fauci  advocated for wearing facial coverings in public. In mid-April, when asked about social distancing and stay-at-home measures, Fauci said that if the administration had "started mitigation earlier" more lives could have been saved, and "no one is going to deny that." He added that the decision-making for implementing mitigation measures was "complicated", and "there was a lot of pushback about shutting things down back then." Fauci's comments were met with a hostile response from former Republican congressional candidate DeAnna Lorraine. Trump retweeted Lorraine's response, which included the call to "#FireFauci", drawing public alarm. "Fire  Fauci" has also been chanted by anti-lockdown protesters in various locations, including Florida and Texas. As a result, the White House denied that Trump was firing Fauci, and blamed the media for overreacting. Due to Trump's opposition to CDC mask wearing guidelines and social distancing measures, which Fauci advocated, Fauci was criticized by right-wing pundits and received death threats that necessitated a security detail. In an interview with "60 Minutes" in 2020, he mentioned that other members of his family, including his wife and daughters, had been repeatedly harassed since the pandemic began. In June 2020, Fauci  said that he was "very concerned" that the ongoing protests against police brutality would cause "surges" in COVID-19 cases, stating that the "large crowds" are a "perfect set-up" for the virus to spread. In July 2020, Fauci advised the public to "avoid crowds of any type". On July 6, 2020, Fauci spoke on a Facebook livestream, offering his opinion that the country's situation pertaining to COVID-19 "is really not good", pointing to more than 55,000 new cases on July 4, 2020. He said the United States was "still knee-deep in the first wave" of cases, and was  experiencing a "resurgence of infections". On July 7, 2020, during a press conference, Fauci stated that it was a "false narrative to take comfort in a lower rate of death" for COVID-19 in the country: "There's so many other things that are very dangerous and bad about this virus, don't get yourself into false complacency." Both Trump and the White House had cited the falling death rate as proof of success of the Trump administration's response. After this appearance by Fauci, the White House cancelled three media appearances that had been scheduled for him later that week . On July 7, 2020, Trump contradicted Fauci's comments describing a dire situation in the country, with Trump saying: "I think we are in a good place. I disagree with [Fauci]." While there were disagreements, Trump also at times praised Fauci. On July 9, 2020, Trump publicly claimed that Fauci "made a lot of mistakes". By July 12, 2020, a White House official told media outlets that "several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr. Fauci has been wrong on things", passing to the media a list of purported mistakes made by Fauci during the outbreak . One of the supposed mistakes highlighted was Fauci's February 29, 2020, statement in an interview that "at this moment, there is no need to change anything that you're doing on a day-by-day basis." However, the White House list neglected to mention that in that same interview, Fauci had stated that the risk could change, "when you start to see community spread", and that the disease could morph into "a major outbreak" in the country. As late as September 23, 2020, when U.S. coronavirus fatalities exceeded 200,000, conservatives continued to question Fauci's and the Centers for  Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) recommendations for responding to the pandemic. In a hearing before the Senate's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Kentucky's Senator Rand Paul asked him if he had "second thoughts" about his mitigation recommendations, including keeping six feet of distance from others and mask-wearing, claiming, "our death rate is essentially worse than Sweden's." Fauci stood by the guidelines, indicating Sweden's fatality rate exceeded those of other Scandinavian countries, and said the comparison between Sweden and the U.S. was not legitimate. Fauci said the recommendations remained valid. After Paul then asserted  New York's high fatality rate showed that mitigation efforts were insufficient, Fauci replied, "You've misconstrued that, Senator, and you've done that repetitively in the past." Fauci explained further that New York State had succeeded in getting the virus under control by following the CDC's clinical guidelines. Paul had made numerous claims about herd immunity, Sweden's interventions to combat the pandemic, the contention that the populations of Asian countries have greater resilience against COVID-19, and statements about death rates due to the virus. In October 2020, Fauci objected after his words "I can't imagine that  anybody could be doing more" were featured in an advertisement from the Trump campaign touting Trump's handling of the pandemic. Fauci said he did not consent to the ad, his words were taken out of context (he was actually referring to how hard the Coronavirus Task Force was working), and he had never made a political endorsement in his career. On October 18, 2020, Fauci mentioned that he "wasn't surprised" Donald Trump contracted COVID-19. The next day, during a presidential call, Trump called Fauci "a disaster" and said that "people are tired of COVID." During a campaign rally  in Phoenix, Arizona, on October 19, Trump launched attacks on his political rival Joe Biden, saying that Biden "wants to listen to Dr. Fauci" regarding the handling of the pandemic, upon which Biden merely replied "Yes" on Twitter. On October 31, "The Washington Post" published an extensive interview with Fauci, in which he voiced a candid assessment of the administration's COVID-19 policies and was critical of the influence of presidential advisor Scott Atlas. Shortly after midnight on November 2, 2020, Trump insinuated he would fire Fauci "after the election" while on stage at a campaign rally at Miami-Opa  Locka Executive Airport in Opa-locka, Florida. At the rally, he made false claims that the pandemic was "rounding the turn" and was met by audience chants of "Fire Fauci!", to which he responded "Don't tell anybody, but let me wait until after the election... I appreciate the advice." Despite the rhetoric, Fauci was not fired. On December 2, the United Kingdom became the first western country to license a vaccine against the coronavirus (Pfizer-BioNTech). In response, Fauci said that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was proceeding "the correct way" and said the U.K. "really rushed  through that approval". The next day Fauci apologized, telling the BBC "I have a great deal of confidence in what the U.K. does both scientifically and from a regulator standpoint. Our process is one that takes more time than it takes in the U.K... I did not mean to imply any sloppiness even though it came out that way." On January 3, 2021, President Trump tweeted, "The number of cases and deaths of the China Virus is far exaggerated in the United States because of [the CDC's] ridiculous method of determination compared to other countries". That same morning, Fauci  responded in an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press", "The numbers are real. We have well over 300,000 deaths. We are averaging two- to three thousand deaths per day. All you need to do... is go into the trenches, go into the hospitals, go into the intensive care units and see what is happening. Those are real numbers, real people and real deaths." When asked if the 2021 United States Capitol attack was a COVID-19 superspreader event, Fauci stated: "I think for those people there, they probably put themselves at an increased risk because they essentially did not adhere  to the fundamentals of public health and COVID-19 context which is universal wearing of masks, keeping physical distance, avoiding crowds in congregate settings. The fact that it was outdoors is a little bit better than if they were indoors completely. But you can still have a super spreader situation when you do things in a crowded way." On January 23, 2021, Fauci was quoted saying that letting the science speak on the pandemic got him "into a little bit of trouble" and got "push-back from people in the White House, including the president", during the Trump administration. Fauci was  also reportedly blocked from appearing on "The Rachel Maddow Show" for some time because the Trump administration "didn't like the way [Maddow handles] things and they didn't want me on [the show]." Biden administration. On December 3, 2020, President-elect Joe Biden asked Fauci, in addition to remaining in his role as director of the NIAID, to serve as the chief medical advisor to the president in the Biden administration. Fauci accepted the offer. After the inauguration of Joe Biden in January 2021, Fauci said he experienced a "liberating feeling" in being able to speak freely about science  without interference from the new administration. He pictured Biden's administration as committed to being "completely transparent, open and honest". In early April 2021, Fauci said of the current situation in the United States that "It's almost a race between getting people vaccinated and this surge that seems to want to increase". In early May 2021, when asked if the CDC's summer camp guidance was excessive, Fauci responded by saying that "I wouldn't call them excessive, but they certainly are conservative" and added that the guidance "looks a bit strict" and "a bit stringent". Also in early  May, Fauci said that he is "not convinced" that COVID-19 originated naturally and that "we should continue to investigate what went on in China until we continue to find out to the best of our ability what happened". In mid-May 2021, Fauci said that Americans who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 no longer need to wear masks outdoors, except for in "completely crowded situations". This guidance was updated in July 2021 to recommend that all people wear masks regardless of vaccination status, in what Fauci said was due to the much more contagious Delta variant. In May 2021, Fauci  denied that the National Institutes of Health supported "gain-of-function research" at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In early June 2021, over 3,000 internal government emails sent by Fauci from January to June 2020 were obtained by media outlets through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. These emails contain information about how the United States and Fauci initially responded to COVID-19. On June 22, 2021, Fauci said that the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant is the "greatest threat" to eliminating COVID-19 in the United States. In December 2021, Fauci, along with virologist Jeffery K. Taubenberger and David M. Morens endorsed  the development of a universal coronavirus vaccine, advocating in favor of "an international collaborative effort to extensively sample coronaviruses from bats as well as wild and farmed animals to help understand the full "universe" of existing and emerging coronaviruses." In February 2022, Fauci told the "Financial Times" that "As we get out of the full-blown pandemic phase of Covid-19, which we are certainly heading out of, these decisions will increasingly be made on a local level rather than centrally decided or mandated. There will also be more people making their own decisions on how they want to deal with  the virus." In March 2022, Fauci said that the United States should expect an increase in COVID-19 cases from the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron, but that it might not lead to a severe increase in hospitalizations and deaths. Cultural impact. Owing to his prominent role in the United States response to numerous global pandemics, most notably HIV/AIDS and COVID-19, Fauci has become the subject of tributes and interpretations across various media, including television, literature, merchandising, and internet memes. Brad Pitt's performance as Fauci during the 2020 season of "Saturday Night Live" earned the actor an Emmy nomination, and  praise from Fauci. Author Sally Quinn has credited Fauci as the inspiration for the love interest to the protagonist in her bestselling 1991 romance novel "Happy Endings". Larry Kramer based the character Dr. Anthony Della Vida on Fauci in his play "The Destiny of Me". In the spring of 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, bakeries across the United States began selling pastries, particularly donuts, with Fauci's face on them to pay tribute to his work in the public health sector. In September 2021, "Fauci", a documentary film about Fauci's life and career, was released by Magnolia Pictures. The  film was produced by National Geographic Documentary Films. Personal life. In 1985, Fauci married Christine Grady, a nurse and bioethicist with the NIH, after they met while treating a patient. Grady is chief of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. Together they have three adult daughters. Memberships. Fauci is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Philosophical Society, and the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, as well as other numerous professional societies including the American Society for  Clinical Investigation, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the American Association of Immunologists. He serves on the editorial boards of many scientific journals, as an editor of "Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine", and as an author, coauthor, or editor of more than 1,000 scientific publications, including several textbooks. On March 23, 2021, Fauci was admitted as an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. Awards and honors. In addition to receiving an honorary degree in 2015, Fauci was invited to deliver guest remarks on May 21, 2020, for the Johns Hopkins University Class of 2020 . Other notable guest speakers during the virtual ceremony included Reddit co-founder and commencement speaker Alexis Ohanian; and philanthropist and former New York City mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. The College of the Holy Cross announced that its science complex would be renamed the Anthony S. Fauci Integrated Science Complex on June 11, 2022.