On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service
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Advisor to seven U.S. Presidents; Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health from 1984–2022; the public health face to the world on major global diseases such as HIV/AIDS, Zika, Ebola, smallpox, malaria, and COVID-19; the recipient of the National Medal of Science in 2007 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008; beloved husband, father, and grandfather, Dr. Fauci’s 54-year career is one that defies description. Words such as outstanding, stellar, important, remarkable, impressive, and meaningful are inadequate to describe the significant life work of Dr. Anthony Fauci, a man who is easily recognized and highly respected on the global stage.
“At its heart, my story is about what it means to devote one’s life to public service . . . In my case, the vehicle for this has always been science and medicine . . . I did not know that this calling would take me where it has: to the very center of the catastrophic AIDS epidemic; to helping protect the country from potential bioterrorism threats such as anthrax and smallpox; to combating outbreaks such as influenza, measles, Ebola, and Zika; and of course, to contending with the COVID-19 pandemic.”
For most of us alive today, Dr. Fauci’s face and voice are altogether familiar. He’s been the voice explaining the science, the research, the treatments, the precautions for the world’s most serious and perplexing maladies. He’s been the calm voice in the room, the compassionate scientist, the professional and humane doctor.
Readers will hear that same voice in his memoir, On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service, an engaging, enlightening, straight-talking, forthright look behind the scenes of the major turning points in Dr. Anthony Fauci’s long and storied career.
As the public face of devastating diseases such as AIDS Dr. Fauci developed a platform for informing people of the state of scientific knowledge on the disease, the nature and availability of treatment options, ways the public could protect themselves, and the criteria for participation in scientific trials. However, such visibility also opened him to intense scrutiny and criticism, often from desperate patients who wanted access to any possible treatment or a voice in policy decision-making.
“Of course, activists are screaming for faster access to treatments. Otherwise, most of us won’t be here when the answers come,” said Larry Kramer, one of the AIDS activists in 1988.
“In February, 1989, a group of activists descended on the NIH to demand a greater effort to develop better drugs than AZT, which was the only AIDS drug available at the time. I made what I consider now one of the most important decisions that I ever made regarding my involvement in AIDS policy. Instead of ignoring them, I asked if seven or eight of the protesters wanted to come upstairs to meet with me.
“They were shocked. This was the first time in anyone’s memory that a government official had invited them to sit down and talk on equal terms and on government turf. We met for two hours in my conference room. After a candid and sometimes heated discussion, I came away from that meeting with a positive feeling and convinced that we needed to have a sea change in the way we dealt with the activist community.”
Such openness on Dr. Fauci’s part to not only listen, but learn and lean into change sparked on-going interactions with AIDS activists over the next several years. Deeply affected by the suffering he witnessed and the anguish over lack of access to treatments that might extend life, he became convinced he had to take a stand contrary to current FDA policy to limit access of cutting-edge drugs to clinical trial participants.
In a keynote address to a town hall meeting in downtown San Francisco on Friday, June 23, 1989, “I threw away my prepared remarks and gave an impassioned speech saying I was now totally convinced we should embrace a parallel track approach to testing certain drugs for HIV/AIDS and its complications. The room erupted in a standing ovation.”
The national press spread the story by the next day. “Officials at the FDA were furious that I had publicly declared my opinion, which contradicted their official position. . . . I did wonder, Could I be fired for doing this?”
“Almost four years later, in January 1993, I received a Certificate of Appreciation from the HHS secretary, Louis Sullivan, stating, ‘With deep appreciation for your outstanding contribution in the implementation of the Parallel Track initiative for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.’ Go figure.”
Remaining open to feedback and criticism as well as praise and acknowledgment, Fauci has weathered the storms of being in the public eye for decades, including the most recent storms over COVID-19, where facts competed with conspiracy theories about masks, vaccines, boosters, treatments, social distancing, the cause/origin of Covid, and just about any issue associated with the deadly pandemic.
Throughout it all, Dr. Fauci fought to maintain his scientific, level-headed advice to the public as well as to the various political figures who offered their own versions of reality.
“My main motivation in writing this memoir . . . was to share my experiences with the world and particularly the younger generation where I might serve as an example and hopefully an inspiration for some to pursue a life serving others not only in the field of medicine and science but in any of a number of career paths that one might choose.”
Today he serves as Distinguished University Professor at the School of Medicine and the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University “where I can have daily contact with the bright and inquisitive minds on campus.”