Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said recently that he’s afraid that someone will try to kill him for his role in leading the organization during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fauci, who was an unknown figure to many before 2020, became a household name during the early stages of the pandemic. He essentially served as the figurehead of the medical community when the pandemic broke out, educating the country about what was going on, and issuing warnings about how to stop the spread.
But, as the pandemic carried on — and people’s lives were significantly affected by very restrictive measures put in place by federal, state and local governments — the positive view of Fauci turned quickly.
Many people started to blame Fauci for the ongoing lockdowns, which affected nearly every aspect of their lives. Not only did people have to wear masks and weren’t able to congregate with large groups of people, many lost their jobs as businesses were devastated.
Fauci took a lot of the blame for this, especially as the pandemic continued to drag on even after the COVID-19 vaccines were made available to nearly all adults in early 2021.
“On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service” is a new memoir from Fauci that Viking published earlier this week. He spoke to USA Today about the book, and about his experience, saying:
“It’s sort of surrealistic. Go back years when I was in medical school, did I ever think that I would be in a situation where millions and millions of people love me for what I’ve done, saving millions of lives … and yet have some people who actually want to kill me?”
A few weeks ago, Fauci appeared on CNN’s “The Source” program, saying that he noticed a direct link between an increase in death threats sent his way that were connected to conspiracy theories about COVID-19.
As he told the program’s host, Kaitlan Collins:
“It’s a pattern. … [When someone in Congress or the media] gets up and makes a public statement that I’m responsible for the deaths of X number of people because of policies or some crazy idea that I created the virus — immediately you can, it’s like clockwork — the death threats go way up.”
During his USA Today interview, Fauci said he was very grateful for the security team that he has on detail every day. He said:
“Do I feel safe? [Yes, but] I still think deep down that there’s a possibility that somebody’s going to kill me.”
Fauci served as the director of the Infectious Diseases Institute for 38 years, dealing with seven different presidents directly in that role, starting with Ronald Reagan.
Fauci said his relationship with former President Donald Trump started off on a good foot — they related because they were both from New York City — it turned rocky eventually as the doctor started to push back in public and private about some of the unorthodox remedies that were being thrown around.
As he said about this pushback:
“I had to, in order to preserve my own personal integrity and my responsibility to the American public, had to publicly disagree with him (Trump).”
