Dr. Anthony Fauci: The division has failed America “in every way”

When Dr Anthony Fauci and “Sunday Morning” special contributor Ted Koppel first met on camera, remote interviews were still something new, and the nation was obsessed with a global epidemic called HIV. -AIDS. Koppel, then of ABC’s “Nightline,” asked Fauci, “How optimistic do you have about some kind of vaccine?”

“Two vaccines are in phase 1 trials to determine safety, but it won’t be good in the 1990s if we’re lucky enough to have a vaccine. At least it won’t be before 1995, ”he replied.

Until 33 years ago, the Fauci had a large national audience, but especially among AIDS activists who were often very critical; and he hadn’t yet inspired any videos, T-shirts, coffee mugs, or impending holiness suggestions like he did recently.

“Oh, my God,” Fauci said, after being shown a particularly holy portrait of himself. “My nuns from Our Lady of Guadalupe in Brooklyn would turn around in their graves when they saw this!

There are also other types of Fauci artifacts:

And then there’s a Sinclair Broadcasting video from July 22, “America This Week,” in which former chronic fatigue syndrome researcher Dr. Judy Mikovits said, “I believe Dr. Fauci made the coronavirus. ”

“You know, Ted, I think this is a dramatic example of the division in our country,” Fauci said. “We had a complete distortion and rejection of facts and scientific evidence. And a certain part of the country believed in the hoax aspect, the fake news aspect.

“The other half yearned for clarity, wanted facts, wanted truth. So, for better or for worse, for one reason or another, I became an unrealistic symbol. Like Saint Anthony. You know, c is a little, OK, great, but it’s not the reality.

“On the flip side, I have had people who have threatened my life because I am talking about public health measures,” Fauci said.

Koppel said, “We have a video of you and your wife walking with a security guard. Has he come to this?”

“Yeah. Yeah. It happened to that. I sparked such animosity that I must have federal agents, armed federal agents, with me, like, all the time.”

“Have your children been threatened?”

“I have to tell you, I’m not afraid of myself, for myself,” Fauci said. “But what really bothers me is the harassment, the ongoing harassment, of my three daughters. Crazy girls, you know, know who they are, know where they live, know what their phone number is, know where they work. It makes me furious. “

Koppel said: “Let’s talk about us America. Here we are, we have 4% of the world’s population. There have been two million deaths in the world. If we had had our share, we would have had 80. 000 “.

“Right.”

“It’s a lot … we have five times this number. ”

“Right.”

“We have been an abject failure, Tony.

“Uh, huh. Yeah. The reasons for that, Ted, I don’t think I can articulate them all, but some of them stand out to me because I’ve been through them. You can’t have mixed messages. You can’t have the politicization of public health messages. I mean, the idea that wearing a mask or not has become a political statement? It makes it harder to implement a good public health measure . “

Koppel said: “You have a very expressive face. And there is a moment – you will instantly know what I am talking about – in the White House press room. I want you to finally reveal what was on your mind. during this Report. “

“Well,” Fauci said, “the one I think you’re talking about is when we were in this situation where we’re talking about hydroxychloroquine”:

President Trump: “It may work, may not work. I feel good. That’s all it is, just a feeling. You know, smart guy.”

“And he was up there talking about it and I think I went like that (puts hand in face).”

“Yes.”

“I did it instinctively. And I was kind of like, Oh my God!, and unfortunately it became the image that exploded around the world. “

“People have gotten to a point where they don’t understand this about President Trump: he can actually be an extraordinarily charming man,” Koppel said.

“Yes. You are right,” Fauci said. “He’s a charismatic person. I got along very, very well with him. But I took no pleasure in having to correct clear misstatements in medicine and science.”

Fauci: “I’m not quite sure what the president was referring to …”

“It pissed off, I think, his staff, his loyal staff, in some ways even more than it bothered him. So that’s where things started to go in the wrong direction.”

President Trump: “He has this high approval rating. So why don’t I have a high approval rating for respecting – and administering – the virus?”

“So the relationship got a bit frayed. And then, when I saw him in the Oval Office, he acted like everything was fine.

“And then we had this famous moment where people were chanting ‘Fire Fauci! Fire Fauci!’ And he said, ‘Hey, that’s not a bad idea. I think I’ll do it.’

President Trump at a rally on November 1: “Don’t tell anyone, but let me wait a bit after the election. He was wrong about a lot of things. He’s a nice man, however, he was wrong about a lot.”

Koppel asked, “With more consistent leadership we could have saved a lot of lives. Is that a fair statement?”

“Yeah, I believe so,” Fauci replied. “I mean, I think if we had had the public health messages – from top to bottom down to the people in the trenches – to be consistent, things could have been different. In fact, I’m pretty sure they are. would have been. different. “

It’s a measure of the sustainability of Tony Fauci who, at the age of 80, has just acquired a new title, working for Joe Biden – his seventh president – as his chief medical adviser.

“What we’re going to see over the next few months is much more of a coordinated and synergistic partnership between the federal government and the states,” Fauci said. “So I believe we’re going to see a shift in attitude when the federal government and the states start working a lot more together, as opposed to ‘You are alone’.”

“Yeah, but, I mean, you’ve spoken before and you’ve experienced your own regret, the partisanship poison that exists.” It’s not going to go away, Tony.

“Well, no, it’s not. What, we’re averaging 200,000 to 300,000 infections per day; about 3,000 to 4,000 deaths per day? I mean, you have to look at those numbers and say, ‘We have to do something different.’ ”

Koppel said: “Your first big challenge will be to be able to get the vaccines on your arms.”

“Right now things are improving, but they’re going to improve a lot because President Biden has made it clear that this is his top priority. You know that the target that has been set, which I believe is quite achievable, is to have 100 million. people vaccinated in the first 100 days… primary and booster. “

“In 100 days?”

“Yes Yes.”

“Do you realize that you are preparing for disaster if you don’t achieve this goal?” Koppel asked.

“Of course, and this is one of the things that was rather refreshing about one of the first briefings we had with President Biden and Vice President Harris, is that he said: “We could have setbacks. But you know when that will happen what We are not going to point fingers. We’re not going to blame people. We’re not going to hide anything. We are going to be totally transparent and honest and we will try to fix it. ‘”

“We’ve had four years, Tony, of – from above – undermining trust in all of our institutions: intelligence, the FBI, the media, science. It’s been a pandemic of its kind, hasn’t it?

“It’s true,” Fauci said. “And we have to fix it. We have to do it. Because the country is at stake.”

“Do you have any ideas on how to start? There is no vaccination for that.”

“No, there is no vaccination. But I think maybe we need to continue to lead by example that being united is much, much better than dividing. Because the division has really failed. I mean, it failed us in every way. “

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Story produced by Dustin Stephens. Publisher: Steven Tyler.