Lessons from Anthony Fauci | The Press

Masks sooner, but for less time. The ambivalence of Donald Trump. And the interesting comparisons between AIDS and COVID-19. Former US health boss Anthony Fauci releases an autobiography this week that is making headlines.

Donald Trump’s pandemic

At the start of the pandemic, the D^r Fauci publicly contradicted the 45^e president, who claimed that the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine was a panacea against COVID-19. During a subsequent call, the D^r Fauci expected an outburst from Mr. Trump, who instead praised the high number of people who watched their news conference. A few months later, just before the election, the president twice insulted the D^r Fauci because he was not encouraging enough about the future of the pandemic. But each time, Mr. Trump ended the call by declaring his affection for her. The D^r Fauci attributes these relatively good relations to their common New York origin.

Marjorie Taylor Greene

The words of the D^r Fauci’s comments about Donald Trump are striking in comparison to the qualifiers he uses towards other politicians. At the beginning of June in Congress, Anthony Fauci was attacked from all sides by Republicans. Last Tuesday on NPR, he vigorously deplored these “ad hominem” attacks, reserving his harshest words for MAGA movement muse Marjorie Taylor Greene, who accused him of pocketing millions of dollars in royalties from anti-COVID-19 drugs and carrying out sadistic experiments on dogs. “I didn’t even know what she was talking about,” the D said scornfully.^r Fauci on NPR.

Regrets

The D^r Fauci writes that his main regret is that, in the early months of the pandemic, he was unaware that SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, was spread by aerosol and that asymptomatic people could infect others with it. others. “This information would certainly have influenced recommendations on masks, social distancing and ventilation. » He thinks, on the other hand, that the obligation to wear a mask in public outside should have been abandoned more quickly. He made this known in the spring of 2021 on the sly to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which maintained this recommendation all summer for the unvaccinated.

From AIDS to COVID-19

Well before the pandemic, Anthony Fauci was one of the main players in public health during the AIDS epidemic, starting in the early 1980s. The events of the two eras invite us to draw parallels. A passage from his autobiography, which relates the situation in 1985, could have described 2020: “Thousands of people had been infected without anyone knowing that the disease existed and they transmitted the infection well before having symptoms. » The D^r Fauci has been called a “murderer” by gay activists. But although he has since publicly reconciled with ACT UP leaders like the late Larry Kramer, he still receives death threats linked to conspiracy theories born in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fauci’s regrets seen from Quebec

Epidemiologist Benoît Mâsse, from the University of Montreal, also believes that certain restrictions have continued too long. “It was heavy in 2022. [Au] second curfew [pendant la vague Omicron], I told my colleagues: “You are going to stop this. There is no one following them anymore, there is going to be a revolt.” Most who had COVID got away with almost nothing, we were less afraid. » Mr. Mâsse also believes that the group which advised the Quebec government was very focused on epidemiologists. “Maybe we would have needed economists and child specialists. » Erin Strumpf, health economist, shares Mr. Mâsse’s ambivalence towards the Omicron variant curfew. “We kept the emergency orientation from the start of the pandemic, we did not change our way of doing things. »