What Fauci's emails from early days of COVID pandemic reveal
WASHINGTON - Dr. Anthony Fauci was a regular on American television as the pandemic spread across the country & millions looked to the leading expert for insight & guidance on defeating the virus.
He was also fielding dozens of questions every day off-screen, answering emails from team members, former colleagues, old friends, journalists, producers, celebrities – & sometimes strangers desperate for advice or Wanted to leave a note of "thank you".
BuzzFeed News published more than 3,200 pages of emails from Fauci's inbox after receiving correspondence from January to June 2020, & The Washington Post published excerpts of more than 860 pages of emails during March & April 2020. CNN also obtained several emails from February. , but many were heavily modified.
While many federal government employees prefer phone to email, this correspondence provides a rare glimpse into Fauci's frantic schedule & courteous, to-the-point demeanor when he speaks about the apparent integrity within the Trump administration's COVID-19 work. emerged as a scarce source of force.
But they also reveal the weight that came with the role.
"This White House is absolutely fast & I am in the middle of it," Fauci wrote in a February 2 email published by BuzzFeed. "Reminiscent of the days after anthrax."
Replying to a journalist two days later, he writes, "I am really tired. I do not get much sleep these days.
'I am hanging there'
Director of the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases — & a doctor for the National Institutes of Health for more than 50 years — Fauci had worked under six US presidents, including then-President Donald Trump, before he became the public face of the pandemic. Federal response to COVID-19.
It did not take long for questions to arrive in his inbox, often asking for several minutes of interview time from news stations & radio shows around the world.
JAMA editor-in-chief Howard Bouchner emailed Fauci on February 5 with a note saying, "You are alive — a little worried about your workload."
According to an email obtained by BuzzFeed, "I am hanging in there," replied Fauci. "I felt like my internship & 1st year residency when I was there every other night & every other weekend, but never actually left the hospital because the patients were so sick."
Several weeks later, Dr. Francis Collins, Fauci's boss, director of the National Institutes of Health, attached a brief reminder to Fauci at the end of his email: "Get some sleep!"
In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer in June, Fauci called the work "exhausting."
"I am chronically tired, I do not get much sleep," he said. "I am constantly briefing, talking, doing things, hoping to search out the exact reason."
And if exhaustion ever turns into despair, Fauci certainly never showed it. Their exchanges - however small - always seemed pleasant. "Let's discuss," he signaled to his team when a new request arrived. "Thank you for your note," was his response to the often streaming thank you notes.
'Don't hesitate to call or email'
Despite a plate already overflowing with the pandemic spiraling out of control, Fauci found support for medical advice and time to answer questions - even when they came from complete strangers.
When someone reached out on March 4 with questions about whether pneumonia vaccines might provide some protection against severe COVID-19, Fauci responded in detail about an hour later.
"Oh my god," the person wrote back, according to an email published by BuzzFeed. "I honestly never expected you to respond & I thank you from the bottom of my heart for being so generous."
When a doctor emailed him in late February that a patient might have coronavirus, Fauci advised next steps, the email published by BuzzFeed shows.
"Don't hesitate to call or e-mail me," he signed off.
For those who feared what was to come, Fauci was honest—both about what experts knew & did not know.
"The really important issue is what the mortality rate really is," he wrote in a March 2 email published by BuzzFeed. "I am expecting a significantly lower death rate, but that may be wishful thinking. Whatever it turns out, the major tools we have are public health measures, especially social distancing, which we have to start doing now. "
At the time, he said, a vaccine candidate was soon starting its phase 1 trial, but "a vaccine has been out of the question for at least a year and more."
'I never turned my back'
The veteran doctor earned scores of supporters and detractors, as he veered strongly against the at times optimistic Trump, who often sought to downplay the severity of the pandemic.
Fauci & Trump disagreed on how to approach the pandemic, what was the right message for the American people & how to re-balance that with preventing further contagion. Through it all, Trump has insisted that he respects Fauci but disagrees with his point of view. But at the low point of their relationship, Trump suggested he was considering sacking her. Security was beefed up due to attacks by Trump aides. In August, Fauci told CNN's Sanjay Gupta that he had to get security protection after his family received death threats & harassment.
When a Chinese health official came to the concern, Fauci replied, "All is well in this world despite some crazy people," according to an April email obtained by BuzzFeed and the Post.
Despite all this, Fauci said that he has never been influenced by politics & has never shied away from speaking the truth.
When a columnist emailed in late February to ask whether Fauci had received orders to seek approval before speaking publicly about the virus, Fauci said, "I have never been turned away and told that I could not speak publicly about anything during this administration," the email published by Buzzfeed.
After a March 1 email from a psychologist expressing concern about whether Fauci was being censored, he replied, "I can assure you that I am not being censored."
As the former president's time in office began to run out, aides restricted how much Fauci could appear on television to give warnings & forbade him from briefing Trump in the Oval Office.
Their turbulent relationship stands in contrast to President Joe Biden's promotion of Fauci to chief medical adviser - a role where he is free to promote public health advice without disdain from the Oval Office.
During his 1st press conference under the Biden administration, Fauci indicated that overconfidence & loose facts are over.
"One of the new things with this administration is if you don't know the answer, don't guess," he said in January. "Just say you don't know the answer."