Who Is Dr. Fauci?

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Anthony Fauci

From Wikipedia

Anthony Fauci
MD
Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., NIAID Director (26759498706).jpg

Fauci in 2007
Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Assumed office
November 2, 1984
PresidentRonald Reagan
George H.W. Bush
Bill Clinton
George W. Bush
Barack Obama
Donald Trump
Preceded byRichard M. Krause
Personal details
Born
Anthony Stephen Fauci

December 24, 1940 (age 79)
New York City, U.S.

Spouse(s)
Christine Grady (m. 1985)
Children3
EducationCollege of the Holy Cross (BS)
Cornell University (MD)
AwardsMaxwell Finland Award (1989)
Ernst Jung Prize (1995)
Lasker Award (2007)
Medal of Freedom (2008)
Robert Koch Prize (Gold, 2013)
Scientific career
FieldsImmunology
InstitutionsNational Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Anthony Stephen Fauci ( /ˈfaʊtʃi/; born December 24, 1940) is an American physician and immunologist who has served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984. Since January 2020, he has been one of the lead members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force addressing the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic in the United States.

As a physician with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the United States, he has served public health in various capacities for over fifty years. He has made contributions to HIV/AIDS research and other immunodeficiencies, both as a scientist and as the head of the NIAID at the NIH. The New York Times called Fauci “the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases”.[1]

Background and education

Greta Van Susteren interviewed Fauci in 2018 (38:18 minutes)

Fauci was born December 24, 1940, in Brooklyn, New York, to Stephen A. Fauci and Eugenia A. Fauci, owners of a pharmacy, where his father worked as the pharmacist, his mother and sister worked the register, and Fauci delivered prescriptions. The pharmacy was located in the Dyker Heights section of Brooklyn, one neighborhood away from his family home in Bensonhurst.[2]

Fauci’s paternal grandparents, Antonino Fauci and Calogera Guardino, were from Sciacca, Italy. His maternal grandmother, Raffaella Trematerra, from Naples, Italy, was a seamstress. His maternal grandfather, Giovanni Abys, was born in Switzerland and was an artist, noted for landscape and portrait painting, magazine illustrations (Italy) as well graphic design for commercial labels, including olive oil cans. His great-grandparents emigrated to the US in the late 19th century. Fauci grew up Catholic.[2][3][4]

Fauci attended Regis High School in New York City, where he captained the school’s basketball team and graduated in 1958.[5][6] He then enrolled at the College of the Holy Cross where he received a BS in classics in 1962. Fauci then went on to attend Cornell University Medical College where he graduated first in his class with an MD in 1966.[2] He then completed an internship and residency at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center.[6]

Career

Fauci discusses his work in 2020 (4 minutes)

In 1968, Fauci joined the National Institutes of Health as a clinical associate in the Laboratory of Clinical Investigation (LCI) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.[7] In 1974, he became Head of the Clinical Physiology Section, LCI, and in 1980 was appointed Chief of the Laboratory of Immunoregulation. In 1984, he became Director of NIAID, a position which he was still holding in 2020.[1] In that role he has the responsibility for an extensive research portfolio of basic and applied research on infectious and immune-mediated illnesses.[7] He has turned down several offers to lead his agency’s parent, the NIH, and has been at the forefront of US efforts to contend with viral diseases like HIV, SARS, the 2009 swine flu pandemic, MERS, Ebola and the new coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).[8]

He played a significant role in the early 2000s in creating the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief[9] and in driving development of biodefense drugs and vaccines following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.[10]

Medical achievements

President Bill Clinton visits the NIH in 1995 and hears about the latest advances in HIV/AIDS research from Fauci

Fauci has made important scientific observations that contributed to the understanding of 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 of the American Rheumatism Association, membership 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.[11][12]

President Barack Obama greets Fauci in June 2014

Fauci has contributed to the understanding of how HIV destroys the body’s defenses leading to the progression to AIDS. He has outlined the mechanisms of induction of HIV expression by endogenous cytokines.[12] 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 million authors in all disciplines throughout the world who published articles in scientific journals”.[6]

Ebola Congressional hearing

See also: Ebola virus cases in the United States

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,[13] testified that NIAID was still some distance away from producing sufficient quantities of cures or vaccines for widespread trials.[14] 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.” [14]

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 are essential to preventing additional infections, treating those already infected, protecting healthcare providers, and ultimately bringing this epidemic to an end.”[14]

COVID-19 task force

Fauci speaks to the White House press corps on COVID-19 in March 2020

Fauci is a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force established in late January 2020, under President Trump, to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.[15][16] He said that the final case fatality rate of those who are infected will likely be closer to 1% than the 2% initially estimated by the World Health Organization, which is ten times the 0.1% reported rate for seasonal flu.[17][18][19]

Fauci has been a “de facto” public health spokesperson for the office of the President during the pandemic[20] and strong advocate of ongoing social distancing efforts in the United States. He argued for the extension of the initial 15-day self-isolation guidelines, issued by the executive office, to at least until the end of April 2020.[21] Due to his disagreements with Donald Trump, Fauci has been criticised by right-wing pundits and received death threats that resulted in the need for a security detail.[22][23][24]

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 author, coauthor, or editor of more than 1,000 scientific publications, including several textbooks.[25]

Personal life

Fauci married Christine Grady, a nurse with the NIH, in 1985, after meeting while treating a patient. Grady is chief of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. The couple has three adult daughters: Jennifer, Megan, and Alison.[26]

Awards and honors

Ben Carson and Anthony Fauci (right) being announced as recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House on June 19, 2008.

Fauci has been a visiting professor at many medical centers, and has received 30 honorary doctorate degrees from universities in the United States and abroad.[25]

Selected publications