Announcer of politics, policy and medicine. Found to behave effective is be consistent, be honest and dont tell people things you would think they might want to hear. Tell them the truth that is based on evidence. Politicians, be they in the administration, the congress, may not be happy with what you tell them because it disappoints them. After al respect you if while it is clear to them that you are telling them the truth based on scientific evidence. Dr. Anthony fauci, director of the National Institute of allergy and Infectious Diseases and a prominent member of the Coronavirus Task force, has become a fixture in americas living rooms. Recent polls give him higher than 75 percent Approval Rating for his communication. Givethe next hour, we will you a more indepth look at this veteran health official. You will learn more about dr. Fauci life, work, and philosophy. Sat down with cuban day q a. Catchy, now 79, has been in his role with nih since 1984. He has advised every president since ronald reagan. In this first segment he talks about his working relationships with prior president s. Youowing that, we will show a recent interaction between dr. Fauci and President Trump at the white house. Let me show you some video you have probably not seen for a long time. This goes back to 1998. It is very quick. It is from the debate, George Herbert walker bush and michael dekakis. And they are talking about heroes. I agree with the governor on athletics. Theres nothing corny about having sports heroes, young people who are clean and honorable and that they are setting the pace. I think of dr. Fauci, probably never heard of him. He is a very fine research, top doctor at the institute of health, working hard doing something about doing research on the disease of aids. Brian that was 1988. Do you remember that . Dr. Fauci yes i do. Dr. Fauci yes, i do. Brian what was the impact on you when he mentioned that . Dr. Fauci i did not see the debate. I was out of town coming in on a plane. The next morning, when i walked into the nih, as i walked into the lobby, people started clapping. And i said, what is this all about . [laughter] what do you mean what is this all about . The president called you a hero during a National Debate that was seen by hundreds of millions of people. I was totally surprised. Brian did you know him . Dr. Fauci well, very well. Ive had the great privilege of getting to know president george h. W. Bush from the time that he was Vice President. And when he was getting ready to run for president , he sincerely wanted to know more about the strange disease called aids. Because quite frankly and disappointingly, the reagan administration, of which he was the Vice President president reagan, who was a good man, did not use the bully pulpit enough about calling attention to aids. George h. W. Bush felt that this was important. So while he was still Vice President , he came to the nih and wanted to meet me. He said, i want to meet this person, fauci, who i see doing all this with aids. Show me around. I spent a considerable amount of time with him, introducing him to my patients, talking to him about what hiv is, and we struck up a friendship. And it was one of those great honors that just falls into your lap. As soon as we finished, he would invite me to the Vice President s mansion for lunch and reception. Then when he became president , it was wonderful because i had a direct input to him. It was wonderful, because i had a direct input to him. He would call me up, or he would invite me to lunches. And even after he left the presidency, he still would write me notes, and he sent me a nice letter on my 60th birthday joking around, saying, i cannot believe youre 60 years old. He is a wonderful human being. Brian how many president s have you known personally . Dr. Fauci essentially, all of them to a different degree. I knew president george h. W. Bush very well. When president clinton came in, i got to know him, not on a personal friendship level, but i got to meet with him and talk with him, and with Hillary Clinton when she was first lady, then when she went on to become senator of new york and secretary of state, no doubt about that, eight years of that. Then when george w. Bush came in, i had met them originally when he was a staffer in the white house with his father. And we struck up a very good relationship, and i think that that was one of the reasons why he sent me to africa in 2002 for the purpose of determining the feasibility of developing a program that might transform hivaids in the developing world. So i got to be quite close with president george w. Bush, related not only to the fact that i knew him through his father, but the fact that he took a very keen interest in global hivaids and allowed me to be one of the architects of the program, which has now transformed hiv globally. The president s emergency aids relief. And luckily, now that president obama is still quite interested and quite amenable to getting involved in solving the problems that i am involved with, so i had the great privilege of meeting several times at the white house and at the nih with president obama. So i have been very fortunate in that the president of the United States have been extremely amenable to listening to and helping out with the problems that we face visavis research and Infectious Disease. Brian 27 institutes in nih, and you are just one of the 27. But clearly, the most visible, except for maybe dr. Collins. He runs nih. How many president s have asked you to be the director of nih . Dr. Fauci george h. W. Bush, two or three times. I said no. He was great. When i said no to him, people thought he would be upset with me because i said no. He respected me for that, continue doing what youre doing. When president clinton became president , his staff asked me if i was interested and said they had heard that i would really be a very good i explained to them exactly what i did to george h. W. Bush. That even though this would be a great honor, i dont even want them to ask me, because i do not want to have to say no. So i took my name out of the hat. When george w. Bush became president , he specifically asked me, and again i said, as i said to his father, that although this is a great honor and a great position, i think i could contribute more to the nation and to the arena of Biomedical Research by staying in the position i am right now. President trump the modeling put together by dr. Birx, dr. Fauci, and our other Top Health Care experts i mean, we have and these people are amazing. These Health Care Experts who are the best in the world. They demonstrate that the mitigation measures we are putting in place may significantly reduce the number of new infections and ultimately the number of fatalities. I want the American People to know that yourself selfless, inspiring, and valued efforts are saving countless lives. You are making the difference. Modeling estimates that the peak in death rate is likely to hit in two weeks. So, i will say it again. The peak, the highest point of death rates, remember this, is likely to hit in two weeks. Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory is won. That would be the greatest loss of all. Therefore, the next two weeks and during this period, it is very important that everyone strongly follow the guidelines, you have to follow the guidelines that our great Vice President holds up a lot. He is holding that up a lot. He believes in it so strongly. The better you do, the faster this nightmare will end. This whole nightmare will end. Therefore, we will be extending our guidelines to april 30 to slow the spread. Dr. Fauci the decision to prolong not prolong, but extend this mitigation process until the end of april, i think, was a wise and prudent decision. Dr. Birx and i spent a considerable amount of time going over the data, why we felt this was the best choice and the choice of us, and the president accepted it. President trump im so glad dr. Fauci and dr. Birx gave us a number. And the number, on the outside, and maybe it is not even on the outside. Maybe it is not on the outside. We dont know. 2. 2 my and people would have died if we did not do what we are doing. Now we are looking at numbers that are going to be much lower than that. They dont want to be stars. You know what they want . They want to win. They want to win the battle against the virus. They have been fighting this stuff their whole life, between ebola and swine flu and i dont know. Thats what you like. Thats what they do. They fight disease. There is nobody that does it better. Susan during our 2015 interview with anthony fauci, he talked about his work at the institute of Infectious Diseases and he also talked about his role of the public face of the institute. Brian when did you make the decision and why that you were going to be available . Dr there are 27 institutes at the National Institutes of health and i can name one or two others. You are always available to answer the questions. Why did you decide to do that . Dr. Fauci it became clear to me that in the discipline i was dealing with, Infectious Disease, particularly emerging Infectious Disease, that generates a lot of concern on the part of the public that could be hivaids, it could be pandemic flu, ebola, even most recently now with the ebola crisis, it became clear to me that the public needed to be educated to understand just what these issues meant to them personally, and to the nation, and the world. And i was perplexed by seeing that scientists who shunned away from trying to explain things in plain english the way people can understand it, there was a culture back then when i first started doing it that scientists either did not want to be bothered with getting involved or when they did, they spoke over people as opposed to trying to get people to understand. And i made the decision along time ago that it was important for the public to understand, and if you really want to garner support from the congress and from the administration, you had to be understood, and you had to be in the public eye. Otherwise, it could slip under the radar screen. And as it turned out, that was the truth. That was one of the reasons why there was a lot of attention paid to it. Brian do you have a boss . Dr. Fauci you know, in science, technically speaking, if you look at the executive branch of the federal government of which i am in, obviously the president is the boss. The department i am in is the department of health and human services, so the secretary is the next level of the boss. Then there is the nih, where you have an nih director in multiple institutes. So technically speaking, that is the boss. So when you are in a scientific in scientific and Public Health, there is very little of that, the boss tells somebody to do something that you might see in another endeavor. It is more of a collaborative discussion, an intellectual deciding what the best direction to go is. Technically, someone is administratively your boss, but in reality, it is more doing the right thing and the best thing at the most appropriate thing. And the most appropriate thing. The National Institute of allergies and Infectious Diseases is responsible what is the broad scope . What do those 1800 people do . Dr. Fauci it is both the conduct and the administration and planning of research in all of Infectious Diseases as well as in certain immune mediated diseases, like asthma, allergy, autoimmune diseases. Brian what is an Infectious Disease . Dr. Fauci an Infectious Disease is one caused by a microbe that is transmissible. The ones you know if they are very clear, aids is an Infectious Disease caused by hiv. Influenza, a recurring problem every season. Every winter, you get an influenza outbreak. And sometimes, you get a pandemic that is very serious. Malaria, tuberculosis, childhood diseases, respiratory diseases, diarrheal diseases, sexually transmitted diseases, all diseases that are caused by a microbe that hopefully you could prevent and or treat. Brian let me ask you the question, what is a microbe . Dr. Fauci a microbe is an organism, and it depends on what is, that has the capability of replicating and getting transmitted from one person to another. Bacterias can live more freely. Viruses need to get into a cell to live. Brian as you look at the world as an outsider or generalist and you see the cdc, you see world ec institutions, the World Health Organization, who is in charge . Dr. Fauci no one needs to be in charge. Each one has their own goal. And i think within the federal government, it is relatively easy to explain. So take the department of health and human services. The three most commonly recognized organizations that have to do with health and research are the cdc, the nih, and the fda. The cdc are the disease detectives. They do surveillance, they track down disease, they recognize the outbreaks of new disease, are they track them, they are very active with the Ebola Outbreak in west africa. Theyre active when you have a flu season or an outbreak of west nile. West nile fever. The nih is pure research. When there is a disease, what we do when my institute, when youre thinking of Infectious Disease, is we understand how that disease evolves, we develop drugs, we develop vaccines, we do prevention modality. So we do the research that allows you to intervene. The food and Drug Administration the fda is a regulatory agency. They make the regulation of approvals for monitoring of drugs or interventions. That is within our own government. When you go globally, the who is kind of like a global cdc. What the cdc is for us, they sort of coordinate Health Globally throughout the various nations. Brian these numbers may be off so you can correct any of them. Since 1978, you have had 490 major elector ships and 31 honorary degrees. Any of those numbers go up . Dr. Fauci the honorary degrees have gone up. 38. 39. Brian where do you find time for all this . Dr. Fauci you said it in the beginning. I dont sleep much. Four hours. Five at the most. Brian really four and a half hours a night . Dr. Fauci five of the most. At the most. Brian no doctor would tell you to only get four and a half hours of sleep. Dr. Fauci it is not the healthiest thing in the world, but when you physiologically get used to it, you get used it. That is it. You wake up and you are fine. Brian when do you find time for the lectureships . Dr. Fauci i tend to do lectures that are important in their impact. I really do, honestly, no boondoggle and. Boondoggling. Someone says we are having a meeting in st. Johns in the virgin islands, we want you to go talk about i wont do that. If there is a National Meeting where youre going to impart Important Information to a group of scientists. I may or may not do that. I pick and choose enough so that i am not so often away from my office that i would lose effectiveness. I am very very careful about not over traveling. I am very, very careful about not over traveling. I do think you can do in one day, fly up, come back the same day. I dont do things, well, lets go out to a meeting at a ski resort, give a talk, you stay there for three or four i zero do that. Its always in and out. When you do that, you can be pretty economical with your time. Brian you are 74. How long are you going to work . Dr. Fauci im going to keep doing it until im not effective. And right now, i am as energetic and i believe as effective as i have ever been. Brian who determines how long you stay there . Dr. Fauci you get reviewed every few years by a committee, an outside committee that reviews you and determines your effectiveness. If it turns out you were not you are not effective, the recommendation is to step down. Brian when there is a new director of your institute, and he or she comes in and meets you and sits before you and says, tell me what i should look out for and we are not talking about medicine, we are talking about politics. As the head of this institution for over 30 years, what would you tell them . Dr. Fauci well, when you are dealing in the interface of politics, policy, and medicine, the things i have found to be very effective is be consistent, be totally honest, and do not tell people things that you think they might want to hear. Tell them the truth that is based on evidence. Because even though politicians, be they in the administration or the congress, may not be happy with what you tell them because it disappoints them, they will respect you if after a while it is clear to them you are telling them the truth based on scientific evidence. So that is the one thing i would emphasize to anyone who follows me. That that is how you can be successful in getting good science to drive policy. Brian what do you tell them about dealing with congress . Dr. Fauci be clear. Dont try to razzledazzle them. Dont talk down to them. Dont feel that because you are a scientist you are so superior that you can talk over their heads. The most important thing is for the congress to understand and appreciate what you are doing and the importance of your work. There is a balance between talking down to someone and not talking in such an esoteric way that someone does not have a clue of what you are talking about. You have to give that balance where you can make the person feel that they really understand what you are talking about. They will like that, because people like to learn. They will feel good about that and say, i have learned something today. And they will also respect you for being able to explain it to them. Susan we are spending this hour on cue and day q a