dr. Anthony Fauci has faced criticism throughout his career, but some of his fiercest opponents later became his closest friends. One of them was the late Larry Kramer, the fiery founder of the activist organization AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, better known as ACT UP.
Fauci became director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 1984, at the same time as the AIDS epidemic was raging. By the time then-President Ronald Reagan first used the word “AIDS” in a press conference on September 17, 1985, there had already been 15,000 reported cases of AIDS in the United States and more than 8,000 deaths caused by HIV.
Fauci describes his journey with AIDS research in his new memoir Duty: Journey of a doctor in the public service. The gay male community, far and away the hardest hit by the epidemic, has been vocally outraged that the federal government has not moved quickly enough to develop effective treatments for the disease.
‘On invitation’.
“I felt it was my responsibility not only to conduct and support biomedical research on AIDS, but to speak out wherever possible about the seriousness of this pandemic, its devastating potential, and the need to do more,” Fauci writes. However, even then he was not naive to the target that was placed on his back.
In late 1986, Fauci met with Kramer and some of his fellow activists and had what he called “a calm discussion about our plans to increase AIDS research efforts.”
“It was critical to communicate with activists, and the best way to do that was to meet their leader,” Fauci writes.
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In June 1988, Kramer wrote a San Francisco Examiner article titled “I call you murderers, an open letter to the incompetent idiot, Dr. Anthony Fauci.” In it, Kramer criticized Fauci for not working fast enough to fight AIDS. But while Fauci was hurt by being called a “murderer,” Kramer’s anger made sense to him.
Dr. Anthony Fauci’s ‘Brooklyn Tough’ Attitude Tested Early: Read Excerpt From His New Memoir (Exclusive)
“I was saying to myself, ‘I would do exactly what they did if I were them,’” Fauci tells PEOPLE. “One of the best things I’ve ever done in my life was to say, ‘Let me put aside the theatrics and the confrontational behavior and the iconoclastic behavior and listen to what they’re saying. And when I listened to what they were saying, everything got better. Better for medicine, better for science, better for regulation.”
Fauci met with activists when they protested at the National Institutes of Health in February 1989, demanding better drugs than AZT, which was the only available treatment at the time. And on June 23 of that year, he spoke at a town hall meeting in downtown San Francisco. There, he “gave an impassioned speech saying that I am now fully convinced that we should embrace a parallel approach to testing certain drugs for HIV/AIDS and its complications,” Fauci writes.
Looking back on Dr. Fauci’s enduring relationship with AIDS activist Larry Kramer — and their last phone call
That speech angered the FDA because it contradicted their official position at the time, but it revolutionized the country’s — and the world’s — approach to the AIDS epidemic. Shortly thereafter, Kramer attended a public government hearing on the subject and shouted from the back of the room, “Tony, I’ve called you a murderer in the past, but now you’re my hero.”
Kramer and Fauci stayed in touch over the years, eventually becoming friends. “During a private dinner just for the two of us in his apartment, we reminisced like two aging warriors recalling the battles we fought together, how despite our initial adversarial relationship we eventually became partners in an important struggle and how the differences between opinion, and even a history of antagonism, are completely compatible with friendship,” Fauci writes in his book.
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Fauci and Larry Kramer. Paul Morigi/Getty; Dave Kotinsky/Getty
Shortly before Kramer died in May 2020, he and Fauci spoke on the phone for the last time: “It ended with Larry saying, ‘I love you, Tony.’ I tearfully replied, ‘I love you too, Larry,'” says Fauci.
He reflects on his friendship with Kramer when asked about the harassment — and death threats — he’s now receiving over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. “There’s a big difference between saying, ‘You know, Fauci, you’re a killer, because you’re tough. If you’d just listen to us, things would be better,’ instead of, ‘Fauci. I want to kill you — and they really want to kill you,’ he says.
Fauci’s wife, Dr. Christine Grady, says she was affected by the hostility toward her husband: “Back then, I didn’t like it when people criticized Tony for things he did or didn’t do, because I knew how hard he worked and how much he cared about what he was doing, and I knew he was trying to do the right thing in almost every case.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci’s esteemed career in photographs
“I still don’t like criticism,” she adds. “But the difference at the time was, ‘Well, you’re critical of them. Can’t you take a minute and understand them?’ [Now] I fear for him, and I fear for all of us. No listening, no trying to fix things. It’s just hate. That’s vitriol. That’s terrible.”
But for his part, Fauci is optimistic that, just as ACT UP activists emerged, the “better angels” of today’s critics will prevail.
“If people really start to realize that we’re a lot more the same than we are different, we’ll get away from what Chris described as that bitterness and that hatred because it’s unsustainable,” he says. “Even if you’re in that camp of resentment, you have to understand deep down that it’s not the solution. It just isn’t.”
Duty: Journey of a doctor in the public service it is available now, wherever books are sold.
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Source: HIS Education