Dr. Anthony Fauci has served as a medical advisor to seven US presidents. He became a household name to a new generation during the COVID crisis but his legacy began long before then, rising to prominence in the 80s with his AIDS research. He is an extraordinary man, and I mean that in every sense. He is a brilliant and dedicated scientist who put his work and its benefit to society above his personal fame and self-promotion. Nothing showed Dr. Fauci’s perseverance more than the year he stood next to then President Donald Trump as Trump mocked science and dismissed practical counsel regarding COVID. During that time, the non-Trump worshipping US populace came to see Dr. Fauci as a decent, disciplined man. We put our trust in his work and heeded his advice.
In compliance a the Freedom of Information Act request, 866 pages of Dr. Fauci’s emails from March and April 2020 have been obtained by The Washington Post. Apparently, Dr. Fauci has always been known for responding to correspondences and that’s something he still tried to maintain, even while inundated with questions and concerns about the coronavirus. And guess what? His emails prove that Dr. Fauci is every bit the person we thought he was. Below are some examples of the exchanges released to the WP.
March 28 email exchange with Chinese health official George Gao: “I saw the Science interview, how could I say such a word ‘big mistake’ about others? That was journalist’s wording. Hope you understand,” Gao, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote to Fauci in a March 28 email. “Lets work together to get the virus out of the earth.”
Dr. Fauci’s reply: “I understand completely. No problem. We will get through this together.”
April 26 email from North Carolina Department of Safety chaplain Freddie Barnes: writing “to express my profound appreciation to you for your work during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“I especially appreciate how you have spent considerable time and capital reaching out to the Black and brown communities,” Barnes wrote. “For you to be intentional about keeping minority communities in the loop is commendable, especially since these communities will be absorbing the disproportionate share of sicknesses and deaths coming from COVID-19.”
He ended the email with a warning: “Take care and ‘Cover your six’ ” — military slang for “watch your back.”
April 14 email exchange with a senior official in the Office of the Surgeon General in the Army and U.S. Army Medical Command: “You are the voice of reason for millions of concerned citizens,” wrote the official, whose name was redacted in the released emails. A list of questions followed: Can the virus be contracted from a corpse? Can someone who has taken hydroxychloroquine for years contract the virus? Are masks and gloves truly effective?
Finally: “What keeps you up at night, regarding COVID-19?”
Dr. Fauci’s reply (a few days later): “I have said in the past that what keeps me up at night is the possibility of a pandemic respiratory infection. We are in that now, and what keeps me up at night is the response, a major part of which is the development of an effective vaccine and treatments for COVID-19.”
April 11 Email exchange with Marc Short, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff re: some apparent crossed wires: “You correctly noticed the symptoms but misdiagnosed the root cause,” Short wrote in a heavily redacted email that closes: “Apologies for a poor poker face.”
Dr. Fauci’s reply (who was pushing back on Trump’s insistence to reopen the economy): “Thanks for the note. Understood. I wish you a peaceful and enjoyable day with your family.”
Email exchange with former Fauci acquaintance (no date given): “stand up to power and speak the harsh truth to the people of this country.”
“The leadership from the top is utterly lacking and incompetent and dangerous to the American people. … We need a unified and professional federal response to this unprecedented crisis,” the man wrote. ”My dad was born during the first worldwide modern pandemic, and I don’t really want to see him leave from this current one.”
Dr. Fauci’s reply: “Thank you for your note. I hear you!”
The article has the full exchanges attached at the bottom of the article along with further details, like who Dr. Fauci consulted to make sure he gave the most thoughtful response. There are several others not listed above, like between Dr. Fauci and an NFL exec trying to find a way to safely play the season. Ultimately, Dr. Fauci said the virus was going to dictate the terms, an answer that ticked Trump off. Many of the emails were requests for Dr. Fauci’s time, to have him come speak or appear in some video, podcast or film. There’s mention of a Disney documentary that Bob Iger was behind. But the article never clarified if Dr. Fauci agreed to it. It does say the film will be released later this year, so that will be interesting to see. There’s also some discussion on the exchange between Dr. Fauci and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The exchange is nice, because it culminated in a top Gates executive reaching out to Dr. Fauci concerned about his overexerting himself. But I was interested because the email exchanges showed Fauci enthusiastic about “a global vaccine effort.” As we know, Bill Gates opposed lifting COVID vaccine patents earlier this year. However, he just reversed course on those oppositions so I’m wondering if Dr. Fauci got through to him.
I didn’t need 866 pages of email to confirm what I already suspected about Dr. Fauci but I’m happy to have them. We know he sacrificed, we saw it on his face as the world plunged further into this ordeal. The fact that he maintained his humanity as well as his reputation while trying to get through to a hostile, corrupt administration is extraordinary. I don’t know if Dr. Fauci ever plans to retire but man, if anyone has earned it, it’s him.
Photo credit: Avalon Red and Getty Images
I would trust this man with my life. So thankful for his leadership over this time.
We HAVE trusted in him with our lives. Our being here to post this now is testament to Fauci and all of the hard working, selfless scientists and HCWs that gave so much of themselves to get us to this point.
I unequivocally can say I love this man. Bottomless respect and gratitude for him staying the course.
Wow. I didn’t know this. I don’t know much about him but wow! Class class class all the way. Love that he responds to some diced emails with Thanks I’ll take note. He seems like a very smart man.
Very nice piece. He has indeed earned a nice retirement if he wants it. I still think about how, very early on in the pandemic, most people seemed willing to pull together to do whatever it took to get the virus under control. Trump singlehandedly undermined that with his petty insecurity and the sycophants fell in line. I still wonder how different things might have been without that selfish interference.
We didn’t need the emails to tell us he is a decent, hardworking man with compassion and integrity. I am sickened every day at the vitriol Dr. Fauci still gets from the right. We are in such a bad place in this country.
It was nice to have an island of sanity and integrity in the sea of crazy that was the previous administration.
It *still* angers me so much that Fauci had to get (and *still* has to have) 24hr security guards because of TFG’s MAGAt nutcases!! They were actually sending death threats to him!! I don’t remember if he had to get security for his daughters (and their families) who live out of state, but there was a 60 Min.piece with Fauci, and it talked about this; showed him and his wife taking a walk, surrounded by personal security. Unbelievable, isn’t it???
Dr. Fauci is an incredible man deserving of the utmost respect. He helped co-write the veritable Bible of Internal Medicine multi-volume texts. Also, my brother is a non-senior employee at the NIH and he sent Dr. Fauci (who does not know my brother personally) an email thanking him for his work over the years and with the pandemic, in particular his commitment to public health. And Dr. Fauci actually responded with a short but appreciative email in return, the same day. He is a humble wonderful human.
We knew he was working his butt off and we could see the stress on his face over the past 16 months – I hope he retires soon-ish and enjoys some time with his family.
Yes. His first press conference in the new administration was something else, he looked 15 years younger. I lol’d and said to my husband that Dr. Fauci was a new man. He was like “of course he is.”
Yes, he looked like a new man. Refreshed and relaxed. Can you imagine what it would be like to have to deal with what he did on a daily basis on the world stage while so many lives depended on what he said and did – while having to deal with HeWhoShallNotBeNamed.
Agreed with Seraphina!
He looked younger, and better.
I love how he communicates in the most practical terms possible, and you never see ego or “I told you so”. If you have the time, Fauci has a great interview with Alan Alda on the “Clear and Vivid” podcast, just two charming old guys from New York chatting away.
Tearing up, to be honest. The selfless decency of this man
It’s been interesting to see how some outlets are spinning this drop of emails. The first headlines I saw, albeit the NY Post, made it sound like he knew all along and was hiding information. GOP are grabbing snippets like no one else’s business, perhaps to deflect the negative attention from shutting down the January 6 commission?!
These articles are trying to say that “Fauci Flip Flops”; that he “ knew all along” that this “virus was man-made and it escaped from a Wuhan lab”. And that “Fauci Funnels Money to China” articles “knowing” this “fact”. Just utter bullshyte!!
I wish he would sue the *&^% out of these papers!!
ugh yea, they take snippets of his emails out of context and manipulate things… which is just what conspiracy theorists already want to believe, so they jump on it and it spreads like wildfire.
Someone on the Twitter mentioned Dr. Fauci’s salary, which is something like 470k a year.
They thought they were being Twitter Smart about him being overpaid and got ratioed out by rational people explaining that the man is a career government worker and with his education and qualifications, along with seniority, it tracks.
So again, a horrific pandemic raised his profile and people still…..don’t……get…..it.
there are “regular” doctors in their own practices who make that much, so why wouldn’t a career physician in an important specialty who’s essentially responsible for the health of the ENTIRE NATION not make that kind of money?…
do people think that gov’t workers are volunteers?!
I first encountered Dr. Fauci in Randy Shilts’ “The Band Played On,” the first big book about AIDS. There are problems with the book, but it’s worth the read for Fauci. His relentlessness in working on that then-little-understood virus was incredible. So when Covid happened and I saw he was the guy working on it, it was immediately reassuring. Truly a man of honor.
That photo with Elton John is adorable. Dr. Fauci is one of the heroes of this pandemic. I hope he can step down and enjoy a stress free life. He carried a huge burden.
I honestly consider Dr. Fauci my personal doctor! I respect him greatly and am so happy that he has lead us through the terrifying time. He has served his country valiantly for many years and is a true example.
I also love how he gets under Rancid Pauls skin. That faux doctor is so jealous of Dr. Fauci it’s embarrassing.
“I also love how he gets under Rancid Pauls skin. That faux doctor is so jealous of Dr. Fauci it’s embarrassing.”
THIS, x100. Paul is such a worm. I think we can all sympathize with the neighbor who assaulted him.
LOL I recently moved and don’t yet have a doctor and I am tempted to put Dr. Fauci on my forms when they ask who my current doctor is
An old acquaintance of mine moved to Florida from Canada, and she’s definitely drank the kool-aid, but I can’t for the life of me understand the most recent meme she posted saying Dr. Fauci is a fraud….like how? how is he fraud? Why does the GOP think he’s a fraud?? Can someone from the States please explain?
They think he’s a fraud because Fauci disagreed with Trump’s insanity.
The QOP is nuts and I’m sorry you lost your friend to the cult.
But like…how do the emails prove he’s a fraud? Like what little I’ve read of the emails they seem like just normal “there’s a pandemic and we’re working on it” emails
Yeah I can’t tell if she was always like this or if Florida just influenced the GOP out of her LOL
@JJJ they seem to have this bizarre obsession with emails, that if your emails are released, the mere existence of emails proves fraud, even if there’s nothing fraudulent in them. See: Hillary Clinton.
The majority of MAGA’s won’t actually read the emails, or if they do they’re not smart enough to comprehend what is actually said. The QOP know they won’t be read so they start the false talking points knowing they will be constantly repeated by MAGA’s.
They did the same thing with Hillary and her emails, Benghazi, and the Russian uranium deal.
What they believe (and what they believe these emails show) is that Facui knew at the beginning of the pandemic that there was a chance it escaped from a lab. Then he went on tv and said that this was not possible. And people were banned from social media for suggesting that it came from a lab. He also privately expressed that masks don’t work and that asymptomatic spread is rare, then went on tv and said masks saved lives and that asymptomatic spread was a major factor. I don’t personally think Facui is an evil mastermind, but I definitely don’t understand the hero worship of him. He’s a regular government bureaucrat who messed up the messaging and confused people.
You do understand how science and medicine work, right? Nothing is set in stone and as more information arises, treatments and strategies to prevent spread occur. And reversals of previous opinions happen (i.e: masks are not helpful in the preventing the spread to masks absolutely being helpful. More information, more study, more life experience change the “facts.”). Add to that a megalomaniac in the White House attempting to stifle any real information and you end up with conflicting information and half truths being laid out as if they WERE the whole truth, by people without a shred of proof or evidence to back them up.
So emails have these funny things called DATES. And as a scientist, he was investigating options to prove or disprove a hypothesis. Yes, in the beginning as in last March they didn’t think masks worked, but that changed with further research. Yes, at the beginning he thought it possibly came from a lab, but that was also proved wrong.
The problem is that people not in academia or science don’t understand that answers may change as more information and reviews are conducted.
Good gravy, Qs are ridiculous.
First of all, I don’t “worship” anybody; respect does not equal worship in my book.
I do not judge him on his occasional imperfect messaging since science was grappling with an unknown virus, states were struggling with inadequate PPE supplies, and an ignorant administration forced a selfish agenda. My deep respect stems from his unswerving, crystal-clear intention being to keep people safe to the best of his ability despite it all.
Most healthcare professionals experienced a shift in perspective and beliefs over the course of the pandemic. I certainly did. As we learn new information we change our behaviors and recommendations.
I personally told a friend in early February to not be too concerned about Covid because I thought that, like SARs, it was dangerous but it wouldn’t become a massive global problem. I was incredibly wrong.
I sometimes land on Q Twitter when I’m clicking through replies to posts (they’re easy to spot), and one post I came across had a clip of Fauci from some press conference 20-30 years ago. There was no date, of course, no context at all, because why would we need that? lol.
Whatever it was from, It was clear that he was quoting someone else; he was reading directly off a piece of paper in a way that told anyone paying attention that he was not voicing his own opinion. The statement was racist and contained the n-word, so they were passing it around as proof that he was racist. HE WAS READING DIRECTLY OFF THE PAPER, lmao. He wasn’t speaking extemporaneously. They were like, “Oh, what’s THIS??” I reported them, but it’s shit like that that gets to people. Just throw them any old scrap and not only let them draw their own idiotic conclusions but run with them and pass them around. If it’s in print and it’s on twitter, it must be true. And then they go on about mob mentality and cancel culture… Canadians aren’t immune to this line of thinking, although I wish we were.
Oops, *Biden, not Fauci.
I bet you he never expected to become such an international icon at such a later stage in his life and is probably bewildered by his popularity. But to have such a kind and measured personality next to Trump’s unhinged madness for a great portion of the pandemic made us gravitate to his sanity. I will always wonder how the heck he restrained himself in Trump’s presence. He obviously disagreed with Trump and thought everything he said was wrong but he always said it in a calm and soothing manner. He deserves all the awards and more.
It’s so refreshing and comforting to see evidence of real competence, integrity, and compassion in action. I know it shouldn’t feel like an outlier, but it does. And I want more more more!
This man is a hero. I honestly don’t know where our country would be today if he didn’t have the courage to stand his ground in the face of Trump’s lies and propaganda. Many, many, many more people would’ve died.
There is so much decency and humanity in all his interactions.
I didn’t expect an article on Fauci to bring tears to my eyes, but here we are. What a kind, decent, honest, and caring man. History will remember him as the hero of the US and international effort to end this pandemic.
Thank you Hecate for a wonderful article. I echo the sentiments of it and all of the above comments. I have family in medicine and science, and to be honest, what we all have been dealing with, and still must, to some degree was very new, and an unknown entity even for the best of experts. And F*!* Trump for disregarding the Pandemic plan that Obama had left in place for him, just in case, of what we knew then and how to deal with something like this , and for politicizing all of it, and costing us lives of people we did not have to lose. Dr. Fauci is a good man, I wish him and his loved ones nothing but the best!
Dr. Fauci needs a long and restful vacation. He has EARNED it.
The courage and backbone it took for this man to stay the course with integrity during the insanity which was the drumpf administration and the vicious personal attacks was superheroic. He is and always has been the epitome of a true “public servant”. Hecate said it all…………..he is a supremely intelligent, decent, hardworking and disciplined human being. If only that were even partially true of all of our elected officials as well.
I can’t express enough how deeply I respect Dr. Fauci and the entire scientific community for guiding us through the chaos and for a life-saving vaccine created in record time.
He has the patience of a saint. Imagine having to explain basic things like the dangers of drinking bleach, with a straight face. Imagine not quitting even though POTUS was creating a toxic work environment for you. Imagine putting public health above all else. The world doesn’t deserve Dr. Fauci.
So… The guy agrees in a private email—meaning not for the public, so there’s no showboating—that he wants to rid the world of the virus, and this to them proves that he unleashed it and is trying to depopulate the planet? I’m sorry, but are these people incapable of understanding what they read? I guess it’s difficult if everything is filtered through a heated and hateful lens.
If you ask them to explain their position, they dance around it. They’re bold unless cornered. Then they start to splutter out the usual deflections. “Do your own research,” “I think it’s obvious.” What little evidence of these evil doings they think they have is flimsy, and anything they don’t have actual proof of they just tell you to go find yourself, knowing full well that there isn’t anything to find. If they had it, they, the faithful steward, could just send it to you. They talk in circles. It must be exhausting. I would feel sorry for them if what they were doing weren’t so harmful.
How about a Nobel Peace prize for Dr. Fauci? It’s well deserved and would drive the former guy nuts. The best response from him on why he didn’t shut up the former guy was, “What was I supposed to do? Tackle him?” I have a picture in my mind of this very action, and it looks so good!
Dr. Fauci is such a stud. Take note, young girls, this is the kind of man to look for!