The attacks on Tony Fauci over COVID-19 advice, masks, gain-of-function research and rejected treatments are vindictive politics dressed up as accountability.
I first met Tony Fauci in 1972. I had recently arrived in the US planning to spend a year working in the Clinical Immunology research unit at Yale University. The unit was led by Dr Fred Kantor who shortly after I arrived invited a young Tony Fauci, who worked at the National Institutes for Health (NIH) to visit and share approaches to projects both units were interested in.
Yale University is in New Haven in Connecticut and at that time the town had very few attractive restaurants so we went a few miles to East Haven to a popular Italian restaurant and enjoyed our pasta and enthusiasm for our related projects. Tony was a most impressive young man and I was to enjoy our interactions for many years.
I spent 14 years at Yale and saw a lot of Tony at meetings and grant review sessions we held at the NIH. His potential was clear and his tireless commitment to scientific research was highly productive. My last two years at Yale were dominated by the emergence of the AIDS epidemic and Tony’s laboratory played a major role in determining just how the responsible virus destroyed the immune system of those infected.
After my return to Australia my focus was on treating those infected and minimising the spread of HIV here at home and in Asia. I saw Tony at numerous conferences on AIDS and we were particularly interested in possibilities for repairing ravaged immune systems when, thankfully, effective drugs arrived on the scene. Tony Fauci’s reputation saw him appreciated as an outstanding scientist among his peers.
Fauci’s leadership at the NIH was associated with many scientific breakthroughs and he championed the distribution by USAID of newly discovered drugs which, if taken 24 hours before sexual activity, would prevent infection with HIV. For poorer nations, ravaged by AIDS this was, and is, a major way to reduce the incidence of AIDS. President Trump’s withdrawal of support for the program is a disgrace.
The final years of Fauci’s 54 years at the NIH saw his team focused on the COVID epidemic and his leadership in advising government on how best to manage the epidemic. As has been publicised world-wide in recent weeks, a few Republican politicians are now claiming that his advice and actions were criminally negligent and for this he should be punished, and indeed imprisoned!
There are three major accusations: Firstly, that he assisted in the funding of dangerous research at the Wuhan Institute for virology in China. This research focused on “gain of function” experiments so scientists would know what changes the virus could make that would see it much more capable of infecting humans. Accusers suggest they created a more dangerous COVID virus that leaked from the laboratory and set off the pandemic; Second, in the early days of the epidemic Fauci did not recommend wearing masks in public but later changed that advice causing confusion and social isolation; finally, that he refused to support the use of two drugs, Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil) claimed by some to be capable of curing a COVID infection.
To address these ignorant and vindictive claims here is a reminder of our experiences with COVID viruses over the last 25 years. There have been three outbreaks infecting humans.
(1) A COVID virus dubbed SARS‐CoV, (SARS-“Severe acute respiratory syndrome”) appeared in the Guangdong province, China in November 2002. It eventually caused an epidemic, affecting 28 countries around the world, with 8096 cases and 774 deaths. This variant of the COVID viruses was more dangerous than the variant we faced in 2019 but was less infectious.
After a series of investigations, it was found that this SARS‐CoV virus had infected masked civet cats and raccoon dogs. Antibodies to the virus in a badger were later found at China’s Shenzhen live animal market, and consumption of products at the market were suspected to be the source of the human infection Additionally, certain Chinese bats were also found to harbour SARS‐CoV suggesting that these animals are hosts for this novel virus.
(2) In 2012, another deadly respiratory coronavirus was identified in camels that caused human infections in 27 countries. While camels experience mild symptoms the infection could be highly lethal to humans, killing 30-35 per cent of those infected. Fortunately it was not highly infectious for humans. The virus is still infecting camels. There was never a suggestion that the 2002 and 2012 infections came from laboratories.
(3) In December 2019, Chinese clinicians reported a number of deaths from pneumonia apparently caused by infection with a corona virus dubbed as “COVID-19”. A number of those early cases were associated with customers of the Huanan seafood market in China. In January 2020 the first case of the infection was diagnosed in Australia. Infections resulted in the death of more than 20,000 Australians.
While COVID-19 may well be related to consuming infected food from the Huanan market, about seven miles away is the Wuhan Institute for Virology. This is a renowned research facility staffed by Chinese and international highly trained and respected scientists. Some of the Institute’s research was indirectly funded by the NIH, led at that time by Tony Fauci. Some have suggested that the COVID-19 virus was created in the Institute via “gain in function” research wherein viruses are altered to learn what may make new variants more dangerous. Suspicions were raised that the manipulated virus somehow leaked out into the community starting the 2019 epidemic.
This latter claim is impossible to prove or disprove but 90 or so of the world’s most experienced virologists have concluded that it is extremely unlikely that the Wuhan lab created and let loose the COVID-19 virus. This is also the oft-stated opinion of Fauci. Nevertheless, President Trump has just issued orders banning “gain of function” research.This is not a decision that will be supported by most scientists who can see that the potential rewards far outweigh the risks where new and deadly infectious diseases are increasing rapidly (Ebola virus, Hanta virus, M Pox etc).
As for the masking controversy, initially no-one knew how important masking might be to minimising the infection rate of COVID-19. Fauci thought that masking of health professionals looking after infected patients should be given priority while the supply of masks was limited. As the infections in the community accelerated he changed his mind. Aerosol scientists were able to demonstrate that viral particles could spread from an infected individual’s nose or mouth in droplets that could travel two metres or so. It was determined that masking gave the wearer 10-20 per cent less chance of being infected, but very significantly reduced the risk that others would be infected.
As we experienced in Australia, masking, social isolation and restricted travelling were incredibly demanding – but they were effective in reducing the incidence of infection. To suggest that Fauci’s change of advice deserves a jail sentence is preposterous.
As for Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine, numerous studies revealed that in safe doses the drugs had no ability to cure a COVID-19 infection. I have often wondered what Clive Palmer did with the 32 million tablets of Hydroxychloroquine he imported.
That Tony Fauci – an extraordinarily talented and dedicated scientist – could be hounded with such vindictiveness by the Trump regime is symptomatic of the ugly America the President has created.
Professor John Dwyer AO, is an Immunologist, Emeritus Professor of Medicine at UNSW and for many years heavily involved in efforts to improve the delivery of healthcare in Australia. He was the founder of the Australian Healthcare Reform Alliance.