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The NIH had laid the scientific groundwork for the speedy development of powerful coronavirus vaccines that, while not perfect, are highly effective at preventing serious illness and death.įauci told the AP that he remains frustrated at the country’s divisions over how to handle the pandemic. In 2008, Bush awarded Fauci the Presidential Medal of Freedom.įauci said Monday he’d hoped there would be a successful HIV vaccine before he retired but “it wasn’t for lack of trying” to overcome extraordinary scientific challenges posed by that virus.įast forward to COVID-19, and for many Americans, Fauci has remained a trusted voice even as scientists were surprised again and again by a fast-evolving new virus. Bush, Fauci helped develop PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, to bring life-saving HIV treatments to developing countries. Activists protested what they saw as government indifference and Fauci, frustrated at being unable to save dying patients in the NIH’s hospital, brought them to the table in the hunt for treatments.
He became head of the infectious diseases branch of the National Institutes of Health in 1984 when the nation was in the throes of the AIDS crisis. Fauci said he planned to continue working after leaving the government, saying he wants to use his experience “to hopefully inspire the younger generation of scientists and would-be scientists” to consider a career in public service.įor all the rancor of the coronavirus pandemic, it wasn’t Fauci’s first run-in with an angry public.