Washington (AFP)
Dr Anthony Fauci, world renowned expert in infectious diseases, has deployed a new talent in the face of the coronavirus: the art of delicately reframing his boss, the American president, without threatening his authority.
Almost every day, this calm and professorial immunology specialist shares a forum with Donald Trump to update the media on the response to the crisis.
And if he measures a head less than the president, he does not let it count.
Director of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases since the 1980s, Anthony Fauci, 79, has distinguished himself in the fight against many viruses, from AIDS to Ebola, with the constant concern of providing reliable information to the general public.
Faced with the Covid-19 pandemic, he followed the same course of action, even if it meant contradicting Donald Trump, who, for his part, was trying to minimize the severity of the crisis or promise a quick outcome to his fellow citizens who were confined to their homes.
"I'm walking on a ridge line," said Dr. Fauci recently. "I say things to the president that he does not want to hear and I have declared publicly things different from what he assures."
"I don't want to embarrass him" or "play the tough guys", "I just want to give the facts," he added in an exchange with the New York Times.
So, when the White House tenant hinted in early March that a vaccine would be available within "three to four months", the expert immediately clarified: "we will not have a vaccine, we will start testing on a vaccine. "
And to add in his rocky New York accent: "As I told you Mr. President, it will take a year to a year and a half" before distributing an effective and safe vaccine.
- "Throwing yourself on the microphone" -
More recently, Donald Trump touted the "very encouraging" preliminary results of an antimalarial drug against the new virus. Asked the next day about this, Dr. Fauci noted that studies on the subject were still "anecdotal".
Yet it downplays their differences. "I do not disagree on the merits" with the president, he assured in an interview published Sunday by Science Magazine.
The president "expresses himself in a way that I will not have chosen because it can create misunderstandings on the facts", but "on the subjects of importance, he listens to me", he said added.
However, some of his messages seem to be lost. For a long time, Donald Trump thus continued to ostensibly shake the hands of his interlocutors, ignoring the calls for "social distancing" hammered by the health authorities.
"When you are dealing with the White House, sometimes you have to say things once, twice, three times, four times before they are heard," admitted Dr. Fauci this weekend. "So I keep insisting ..."
And when the tempestuous billionaire clearly enacts a false truth, right in front of him, as when he accuses China of not having communicated "three, four months earlier" on the new coronavirus?
"I'm not going to jump on the microphone to dismiss it," said the doctor, who preferred to explain to Donald Trump's entourage that it was going back to September, well before the appearance of the first cases.
The republican billionaire does not seem to hold it against him, he who said Monday during his daily press conference: "He's a good man. I really like Dr. Fauci".
- "National Treasury" -
The son of a pharmacist, Anthony Fauci joined the National Institute of Health (NIH) in 1968, two years after his medical degree and immediately specialized in immunology.
In 1981, when he learned of the death of many homosexuals with symptoms resembling each other, "I said to myself: oh my God, we are facing a new disease," he said after the fact.
By working with HIV positive associations, which were initially very critical of the response from health authorities, he succeeded in speeding up the distribution of the antiretroviral drugs essential for their survival.
Under Republican President George W. Bush, he was the architect of the Pepfar program, which has helped millions of Africans with the virus.
Decorated in 2008 for his efforts against AIDS, Anthony Fauci once again seems to be unanimous, to the point that certain media, however very critical of the administration of Donald Trump, called him "American hero" or " national treasure ".
© 2020 AFP