Anthony Fauci, Who’s Helping the White House Form its Coronavirus Response, is the Expert We Need

When President Donald Trump brought Dr. Anthony Fauci to the podium last week to talk to the nation about how to deal with the coronavirus, people were impressed by Fauci’s detailed instruction, calm confidence, and Brooklyn can-do attitude. In 2012 Science reporter Jon Cohen described Fauci as a man who “swears like a scientist, and his rapid-fire patter mixes the demanding and caustic with a dollop of charm.”

Who, exactly, is this guy?

Bottom line: he’s the man you want by your side in a global pandemic. First of all, he’s the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and has helped to solve every epidemic since 1980. (He started advising presidents back when Ronald Reagan was in the Oval Office.) He’s also the government’s best-known scientist after having overseen research and preventative measures concerning malaria, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections, influenza, tuberculosis, and chemical agents of bioterrorism.

In fact, he even appeared on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Show to discuss his work in Africa on behalf of George W. Bush.

Here’s the summary of his career, by Cohen written in 2012.

Fauci, 71, enjoys a good debate, and this past year alone has found him at the center of hot topics such as mutant forms of the H5N1 bird flu virus that scientists engineered to transmit in mammals and a mouse retrovirus erroneously linked to chronic fatigue syndrome. He is just as comfortable doing rounds with patients as he is testifying to Congress. He’s a go-to source for journalists, and photos that clutter one office wall show Fauci hobnobbing with the likes of presidents Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush, and Mother Teresa, Elizabeth Taylor, and rock star Bono. Fauci’s critics say he is an obsessive-compulsive autocrat with a serious limelight addiction. But in his 28 years occupying the NIAID director’s office on the seventh floor of NIH’s Building 31 in Bethesda, Maryland, no serious charge against him has stuck—and no one has challenged his commitment.

Even though he’s 79 years old, it looks like his work is not quite done.  God bless the people working to keep this nation safe.

Hat Tip: ScienceMag