DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, EXPLAINER-IN-CHIEF
What a difference 48 hours makes. One day, we’re quoting a doctor advising folks to be careful at the gym and wipe equipment with disinfectant before and after use. The next day, we’re telling our better seven-eighths that we will skip the gym this week. And maybe the next.
There is a lot alarming today. Many of us won’t visit a nursing home just now, not because of what’s inside, but because of what we might bring with us. People keep saying don’t panic, but it’s difficult.
Then we see, and hear, Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Dr. Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Maryland. And the smartest thing the Trump administration has done so far is put this man all over the airwaves, all over the papers, all over the internet. He appears to be exactly what the nation needs right now: Somebody who tells it with the bark off. With a smile.
When the president announced a travel ban from Europe, Dr. Fauci made it clear: The ban doesn’t apply to American citizens trying to get home. No need to stampede the airports.
The doctor — can we call him Doc yet? — explained his “curve” idea on NBC: The goal is to blunt the number of confirmed cases in the United States for as long as possible so as to not overwhelm the hospital system. As for now, the elderly and those with health problems already “should really hunker down.”
And when somebody on CNN asked him if hundreds of thousands of deaths were possible from this Covid-19, doc answered that question in perhaps the best way possible: You always plug in worst-case scenario numbers into your computers, he said. The models will give worst-case possibilities.
“And the reality is, how you react to that will depend where you’re going to be on that curve. It sometimes gets taken out of context, but we have to be realistic and honest. It is possible. Our job, our challenge, is to try and make that not happen.”
It’s not that Dr. Anthony Fauci is optimistic. Just reading his words in print, and you can see he isn’t, necessarily. But what he is, is a straight-shooter.
Dr. Fauci told Congress the administration had a failing in the number of Covid-19 tests. He semi-scolds young people who think they can buck the disease and hang out in large crowds. And he’s consistently frank.
That’s not something Americans are used to. On one of the Sunday cable shows, Dr. Fauci was followed by the United States treasury secretary. The contrast was clear. Crystal.
Dr. Fauci seems to be the kind of doctor you’d want for yourself, telling you about your condition at the family clinic. Just give it to us straight, doc, we can take it. And after you listen to him, behind closed doors while sitting on a cold table, in a paper gown with an uncomfortable breeze, you’re convinced he has your best health in mind. And you walk out of the clinic knowing you’ve got a fighting chance with a doctor like this.
Dr. Fauci’s bedside manner might have something to do with his experience. He’s worked for six presidents. And get this: He first got his job — his current job — in 1984. You’ll remember that the nation was going through the AIDS crisis then. And there were as many fearful people then as today. And as many rumors and myths about the disease.
Since the Reagan administration, this man has handled HIV, SARS, Ebola and the anthrax attacks. He’s guided his fellow Americans through each crisis by telling it plain, and not panicking himself. (After the Ebola crisis a few years ago, he gave a cured nurse a hug before the cameras, showing such interaction to be safe, at last.)
Some people are made for certain moments. Thank heaven, so are some doctors.