Anthony Fauci can’t pinpoint the most meaningful dinner he’s ever had — every time you mention one, there’s another memory of another supper with another legend waiting in the wings. Was it the private, casual get-together with former President George W. Bush? Or the time he got to eat with his boyhood baseball hero, Yogi Berra? Or even the time he was with singer and AIDS activist Bono, wishing he could share the secretive news about the latest project he was working on, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.
In a special edition of the “First Opinion Podcast,” STAT executive editor Rick Berke and senior writer Helen Branswell interviewed the country’s former top infectious disease expert about some of the insights and revelations from his new memoir, “On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service.”
Conversation topics include when Fauci knew that Covid-19 was a real threat; when another AIDS activist, Larry Kramer, called him “the consummate manipulative bureaucrat” in an interview with STAT; how quickly national health risk can skyrocket when it comes to pathogenic viruses; and which former president Fauci has the most affection for.
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