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- The Trump administration reportedly barred Anthony Fauci, a top US experts on infectious disease, from speaking publicly about the coronavirus outbreak without approval.
- Some of Fauci's statements about the virus have been at odds with claims from President Trump.
- US public-health experts are angry, and one said his silence "is a threat to public health and safety."
- Fauci has been director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984. He's tackled the AIDS, Zika, and Ebola epidemics.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Anthony Fauci has guided the US through the AIDS, Zika, and Ebola epidemics.
He's been the director of the US' National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984, advising six presidents. George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008.
Fauci is now helping to lead the response to the new coronavirus outbreak.
But the Trump administration has reportedly told Fauci and other top health officials "not to say anything else without clearance" from the White House, according to The New York Times. A NIAID spokesperson told Business Insider that "this is not true," however.
Fauci's comments about the coronavirus have contradicted Trump's several times. Whereas Trump said the US "will essentially have a flu shot for this in a fairly quick manner," Fauci has estimated that we're between a year and a year-and-a-half away from a coronavirus vaccine. Trump also expressed optimism that COVID-19 — the disease the virus causes — will disappear, but Fauci has suggested the world is on the brink of a pandemic.
US health experts were angry about the White House's restrictions on Fauci's speech, the Times reported, given that the world is in the midst of one of the worst public-health crises in years.
"Presidents Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama trusted Tony Fauci to be their top adviser on infectious disease, and the nation's most trusted communicator to the public," Ronald Klain, who led the Obama administration's response to the 2014 Ebola crisis, tweeted on Thursday.
He added, "If Trump is changing that, it is a threat to public health and safety."
Here are some of Fauci's biggest accolades and achievements.
Fauci joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as an autoimmune-disease researcher after getting his doctorate from Cornell University.
Rajesh Jantilal/AFP via Getty
He's spent more than half his life working in the public-health sector.
Fauci took over the top position at NIAID in 1984. The institute has an annual budget of nearly $6 billion and manages the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS, measles, and tuberculosis in the US.
Jim Bourg/Reuters
NIAID also supports research on autoimmune disorders like asthma and allergies and handles oversight of emerging diseases such as Ebola and Zika.
When Fauci took over NIAID, the world was in the throes of the HIV/AIDS crisis. He was one of the leading architects of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a program credited with saving millions of lives.
Larry Downing/Reuters
Fauci's research has been pivotal in understanding how HIV destroys the body's immune system. He played a critical role in developing treatments that enable HIV-positive people to live long and active lives.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
- How the 'failed' quarantine of the Diamond Princess cruise ship started with 10 coronavirus cases and ended with more than 700
- The FDA just announced the first drug shortage caused by the coronavirus, but wouldn't identify the drug
- A dog got put in coronavirus quarantine after testing a 'weak positive,' though it's unclear whether it is actually infected
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