The upcoming publication of immunologist Anthony Fauci’s book brings us back to two aggravating factors in political polarization in the United States: the crisis of confidence in traditional sources of information and the COVID pandemic.
In On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public ServiceFauci looks back on a career spanning around sixty years, including nearly forty years as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, but he also reserves a chapter for his relationship with the 45e president.
Discredit public service
Now aged 83, the famous doctor should enjoy a peaceful retirement and receive gratitude and tributes. However, he was recently welcomed to the American Congress where an elected official like Marjorie Taylor-Green showered him with insults.
Before the election of Donald Trump and the pandemic, Fauci was rightly considered an American hero. His track record is impressive and he has been in all the fights.
His enemies were Ebola, SARS, West Nile virus, anthrax and AIDS.
When he faced AIDS, he was severely criticized because, faced with this unknown, he first reacted in a traditional way before integrating the sick into his work.
His openness explains why one of his harshest critics (who first called him a murderer) later became a close friend.
The immunologist has also collaborated with seven American presidents. Of the group, only one discredited and insulted him. You guess which one.
One of the most important moments of his professional life was experienced alongside Republican George W. Bush. It was the latter who signed the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in 2003.
Impossible mission
If his legacy seems in question in 2024, it’s because Anthony Fauci was called upon to guide the response to the pandemic while Donald Trump was president.
We have all been affected by this pandemic and no government has had perfect answers while new data is constantly being added.
The task becomes titanic when the president launches into disinformation, stupidity (remember bleach injections?) and insults on social networks.
In a chapter titled “He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not,” Fauci says that in addition to discrediting him, the president berated him, holding him responsible for the disastrous economic fallout.
Donald Trump opened the door to all the conspiracy theorists who accused the doctor of financing the research that led to the development of COVID-19 and of having collected millions of dollars from the pharmaceutical companies that developed the vaccines. There is no evidence to support these accusations.
The crisis of confidence in leaders that we are experiencing, often justified, reaches a worrying level when it leads to the politicization of science. Here we are, as an American hero retires without receiving all the recognition he deserves.
