BioInsights - Guiding America througha pandemic

COVID-19: HOW IS THE PANDEMIC CHANGING THE VACCINES SPACE?

Guiding America througha pandemic

Vaccine Insights 2022; 1(1), 15–20

DOI: 10.18609/vac.2022.004

Published: 19 May 2022
Interview
Anthony Fauci, Laura Pierce, Sumona Sarkar, Bo Lin, Jean Qiu, Ceren Yilmaz, Christina Yi, Corinna Yilmaz, Dezhong Yin, Dan Yi, Elinor Yissachar, Denizhan Yilmaz

Vaccine Insights Editor Charlotte Barker speaks with Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Chief Medical Advisor to the US President.

For the public and scientists alike, presidential advisor and leading infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci has been the face of the USA’s pandemic response, calmly outlining the latest scientific advances and public health advice through two years of social and political turmoil. As we reach an apparent turning point in the COVID-19 pandemic, we sit down with Dr Fauci to find out his lessons learned and priorities for the future.

Anthony S Fauci has been the director of NIAID since 1984, where he oversees an extensive portfolio of basic and applied research to prevent, diagnose, and treat established and emerging infectious diseases and immune-mediated illnesses.He has advised seven presidents on domestic and global health issues and was one of the principal architects of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a program that has saved millions of lives throughout the developing world. He is currently the Chief Medical Advisor to President Joe Biden. Dr Fauci is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the highest honor given to a civilian by the President of the United States), the National Medal of Science, and the Lasker Award for Public Service. Dr Fauci is also the longtime chief of the NIAID Laboratory of Immunoregulation and has made many contributions to basic and clinical research on the pathogenesis and treatment of immune-mediated and infectious diseases, including developing therapies for formerly fatal inflammatory vascular diseases such as polyarteritis nodosa. Dr Fauci has made seminal contributions to the understanding of how HIV destroys the body’s immune defenses and continues to devote much of his research to the immunopathogenic mechanisms of HIV infection and the scope of the body’s immune responses to HIV.