Anthony Fauci doesn’t want to distract himself with the thought of being a celebrity. In the year of the pandemic, the US immunologist formed a counterweight to Donald Trump and did not spare the Americans with gloomy forecasts. Now Fauci is facing a big birthday.
Washington (AP) – He warns, he admonishes and gives hope: Anthony Fauci has been an integral part of everyday American life since the beginning of the year. The scientist has been considered one of the most outstanding experts on infectious diseases in the USA for decades. During the Corona crisis, he became America’s face in the fight against the pandemic – his fame now extends beyond scientific circles and beyond the country’s borders. He has been trying for months to provide answers to the most pressing questions in the pandemic and has not spared the public with dire forecasts. The immunologist will celebrate his 80th birthday on December 24th.
In the USA it is common for icons to be sold at some point in time. Fauci’s likeness is now emblazoned on sweaters, socks and – unsurprisingly – protective masks. In the capital Washington, his face can be seen on displays in front of residential buildings or on the roadside. They admonish passers-by: Listen to Dr. Fauci and not just any acquaintances from high school.
To be considered a celebrity is “surrealistic and in some ways nice and amusing,” Fauci recently told the US magazine “People” – one of the many media outlets on whose front pages the health expert landed this year. But Fauci makes it immediately clear that he is interested in something completely different than personal fame. “You can’t take any of this seriously and start thinking that you’re a celebrity. If you start to think this, you will get in trouble. I am a doctor. I am a scientist. And I’m a public health officer. “
Fauci is the son of a family of pharmacists. He was born in 1940 in Brooklyn, New York. As a young boy he was already delivering medicine orders by bicycle. In 1966 he graduated from the prestigious medical faculty of Cornell University as the best in his class. He first worked as an intern before moving to the National Health Institutes, where he was one of the first to begin research on HIV. The father of three daughters has headed the National Institute for Infectious Diseases since 1994. “I am deeply interested in everything I do now and I am really good at it,” Fauci told Time magazine, which named him “Protector of the Year”.
The multi-award-winning scientist moved into the limelight during the corona pandemic not only because of his expertise, but also because of his position in Donald Trump’s White House. As part of the Corona working group, he took an outstanding position in informing the population, but it did not stop there. He became the voice of reason in the pandemic and thus a counterweight to Trump – who is not known for always following science and facts.
When Trump appeared in front of the media almost every day with the Corona task force in the early phase of the pandemic, Fauci did not shy away from capturing overly optimistic, too far-reaching or misleading statements from the president. Diplomatically, but clearly, he relativized Trump’s advertising for the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in March and made it clear that there were no serious clinical studies on it. When Trump raised hopes for a quick return to normal operations, he put the brakes on.
But Fauci not only spoke at the side of the President, but was suddenly seen and heard on all conceivable channels. He provides information about the state of affairs at hearings in the US Senate, on breakfast television or in podcasts.
In the summer reports in the United States caused a stir that there were attempts in the White House to discredit Fauci. Trump himself said of Fauci that he was “a nice man, but he made a lot of mistakes”. The health expert was not intimidated by this. When asked whether he even wanted to continue working for the government under such circumstances, Fauci said in an interview: “I just want to do my job. I’m really good at it. And I’ll keep doing it. ” Surveys confirmed Fauci that people trusted him more than Trump.
Fauci has worked under all US presidents since Ronald Reagan. Future US President Joe Biden has long since made it clear that Fauci is the measure of all things for him. «If Dr. Fauci says we have a vaccine that is safe, “he’ll get vaccinated,” Biden said. Fauci is to become Biden’s chief advisor on corona issues as soon as the future president takes office on January 20.
For his exhausting everyday life, Fauci keeps himself fit with «Power Walking». Every day he covers 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) with his wife Christine Grady, he told InStyle magazine, which portrayed him as “The Good Doctor” in the summer. With encouraging words and compassion, Fauci does well to do justice to this label. “We will get through this, it will end,” he told People magazine, referring to the pandemic.
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