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Dr Anthony Fauci examining patient with early stage AIDS at NIH, 1987
Photo: NIAID
Dr Anthony Fauci has been Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984 and is now the President’s Chief Medical Advisor. He has led the United States’ medical response efforts since the height of the HIV / AIDS epidemic and continued as another deadly viral pandemic took hold.
He has spoken before about the comparisons and contrasts between AIDS and COVID-19, but now he has revealed he needs to visit gay bars and bathhouses during the height of the HIV / AIDS epidemic to see how it works. decimated the LGBTQ community.
Related: Trump Blocked Dr Fauci From On Rachel Maddow’s Show ‘For Months’ Biden already let him do it.
In a session with NPRTerry Gross for the Fresh Air podcast, Dr Fauci spoke in depth about his management of HIV and coronavirus during his tenure from the 1980s to today. He believed that seeing saunas and clubs with his own eyes had helped him become a better immunologist.
“It was the very first years of the epidemic,” he began. “We were seeing a large number of mostly gay men who were once well otherwise, who were devastated by this terrible and mysterious disease. And it was so focused in the gay community that I really wanted to get a feel for what was going on there that would lead to this explosion of a sexually transmitted disease.
“So I did. I went to the neighborhood of Castro [of San Francisco]. I went to Greenwich Village and went to the bathhouse to basically see what was going on.
There, Dr Fauci said he found the “insight” he needed to start fighting the epidemic properly.
“I went to the public bathhouse to basically see what was going on, and the epidemiologist in me said, ‘Oh my God, this is a perfect setup for an explosion of a sexually transmitted disease.’ And the same thing of going to gay bars and seeing what was going on, and it gave me a good look at how explosive the sexually transmitted disease epidemic was.
Gross asked Dr Fauci if then-President Republican Ronald Reagan made his job more difficult. “Reagan was backed by the religious right who had a very anti-gay agenda,” Gross noted, “and it was sort of very central to their political agenda. Do you think this interfered with the kind of funding you needed for AIDS research? “
“You know, I think it was to some extent,” Dr Fauci replied, although, he said, “I think the president himself didn’t feel that way. self.
Dr Fauci added: “I think because a lot of his riding was that way, what he didn’t do was he didn’t use the intimidating pulpit of the presidency to gain support and attention to what was happening right in front. eyes of everyone.
Gross then began asking Dr Fauci to become the target of queer HIV / AIDS activists, and so did when the coronavirus pandemic began in 2020.
“I think you were burnt in effigy… and there was a picture of your head on a point. Were those threats you needed to take seriously the same way you needed to take them seriously now? Gross asked.
“No, absolutely not,” Dr Fauci immediately replied.
Telling a time when he went “in the middle of Greenwich Village to meet what must have been, you know, between 50 and 100 activists in this meeting room” basically alone, adds Dr Fauci, “not for a second I feel physically threatened to go there, not even close. I mean, that’s not the nature of the manifestation. One of the things about it was that not only were they not threatening in a violent way at all, but ultimately they were on the right side of the story.
He specifically mentioned Larry Kramer’s famous editorial calling him a “murderer” for ignoring the concerns of the LGBTQ community at the time.
“I’ll never forget that. He wanted to get my attention. And it certainly caught my attention, ”recalls Dr. Fauci of the legendary late activist.
Dr Fauci said he had learned two important things in dealing with the AIDS epidemic: “One of them is the importance of involving the community and of caring for the community and its people. special needs … if you look at the incidence of infection and the incidence of serious illnesses, including hospitalizations and deaths, brown and black people suffer much more than white people.
“We also learned the importance of basic science in finding solutions,” he explained. “At the very beginning, being infected with HIV was a virtual death sentence for the overwhelming majority… it was the basic science of targeted drug development that allowed us to develop combinations of drugs… that ultimately transformed lives completely. people living with HIV. “
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