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“There are very few people on this planet who have dedicated their entire lives to service to save millions of lives like Dr. Fauci,” said the global music superstar, who founded an eponymous foundation that fights against HIV / AIDS and its stigma. .
“Her unwavering commitment to public health and innovation has transformed the approach to HIV,” said John. “And it is his leadership and perseverance that will ultimately help us overcome the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was the AIDS coordinator of the National Institutes of Health before becoming the first director of the NIH Bureau of AIDS Research, where he served from 1988 to 1994.
In a conversation with former first daughter Barbara Bush which was shown at Tuesday night’s event, Fauci recalled, in the early years of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s, “putting Band-Aids on bleeding with no drugs available, literally watching all of my patients die. “He called it” one of the darkest times of (his) life. “
“It’s something that stuck with me, of what it feels like when you have people you want to save that you can’t,” he says.
After the development of drugs to treat the disease, Fauci said, he noticed a “staggering and painful” disparity between the United States and Africa on HIV / AIDS. He helped create the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a program launched in 2003 under the leadership of President George W. Bush to help save the lives of people living with HIV / AIDS in countries in development.
“The impact is extraordinary and it’s the gift that keeps on giving,” Fauci said. “It created a system that allows you to deliver the kind of care, prevention, and treatment in an area and in a system that most people thought was impossible.”
Fauci attributed the longevity of the program, which continues to this day, to two-party politics.
“The lessons learned – and boy, do we need to know that now in today’s world – is that if you want to do something, the division doesn’t work. You have to bring the people together,” said Fauci told me. “And I hope that, as we look to the future, that’s what we’re going to start to see now, because we have to get back to that bipartisan approach.
US Global Leadership Coalition CEO Liz Schrayer echoed World AIDS Day as an important time “to reflect on what America bringing together in a bipartisan fashion can actually do.” and said it was “an extraordinary honor” for the Fauci Award Coalition with the Lifetime Achievement Award
“It was just natural for us to bring these two issues together: World AIDS Day and a celebration of America making a difference in the world,” she said.
When asked if he believes he sees a generation without AIDS in his lifetime, Fauci expressed optimism but said the work to fight the deadly disease must continue.
“When Covid essentially becomes the rearview mirror, HIV will still be there,” he said. “And that’s the thing we have to do. We have to keep an eye on that and never let that – the end game of ending this is, for me, we’re going to get there, and we’re going to go on and on for. that I’m still here, I can tell you. “
This story was updated with remarks from Liz Schrayer, President and CEO of the US Global Leadership Coalition.
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