Comments on Anthony Fauci's "On Call"

Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Health, Medicine, Science & Society

Ed Hessler

In his forty year career as an infectious disease specialist, Dr.Anthony Fauci advised seven presidents on infectious diseases.  

 

In a forthcoming memoir, On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service, STAT's General Assignment Reporter, Jason Mast notes that "he strove to speak with complete candor and stay out of politics, while remaining strategic in pushing for policies he considered vital to public health."

Mast discusses his top takeaways from his reading of the 455 page book. They are:

-- Of course, he would do things differently on Covid-19 if given another shot.

-- The U.S. response to the pandemic succeeded on science, and failed on public health.

-- Local health officials tried to warn Fauci, who tried to warn the White House, that contact tracing was failing.

-- Fauci grew increasingly concerned about the politicization of science during the 2015-2016 Zika outbreak.

-- But Covid was unlike anything else.

-- An HIV vaccine may be far, far off, if it’s possible at all.

-- He advocated for efforts on TB, HIV, and malaria that didn’t see the light of day.

-- Fauci turned down an offer, in 1989, to become NIH chief.

-- He tried to squeeze greater and greater funding for HIV out of administrations with a deft hand.

Mast's essay, "Inside Anthony Fauci’s ‘On Call’: 9 health and science takeaways from the memoir of America’s most famous doctor", may be read here.

And here for your information is the Amazon entry. The book was released on June 18. It should quickly accumulate reader reviews.

I've seen two interviews with Dr. Fauci about the book. This one by CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta really stood out. It is 11m 28s long. Be patient, it begins with some introductory comments.