5 Things We Learned From Anthony Fauci's Emails

Discussion in 'Politics' started by piezoe, Jun 8, 2021.

  1. piezoe

    piezoe



    5 Things We Learned From Anthony Fauci's Emails


    June 3, 20211:44 PM ET
    [​IMG]
    Laurel Wamsley


    Twitter
    [​IMG]

    Thousands of pages of Dr. Anthony Fauci's work emails from January to June 2020 have been released via Freedom of Information Act requests by news organizations. Fauci is seen here before he testifies in front of a Senate committee last June.

    Kevin Dietsch/AFP via Getty Images
    For many Americans, Dr. Anthony Fauciquickly became the face of trust and reason against the coronavirus pandemic. He was a reliable man of science while the Trump White House often played politics in its decision-making.

    Fauci, the 80-year-old director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was seemingly everywhere as the pandemic emerged, appearing at White House coronavirus task force briefings and doing interviews with an enormous range of media outlets, answering questions basic and complex as the dangerous new virus wreaked havoc on the U.S. and the world.

    Now a fresh window into Fauci's life and work has opened, as thousands of pages of Fauci's work emails from the early months of the pandemic have been released to BuzzFeed and The Washington Post via Freedom of Information Act requests.

    BuzzFeed has posted its entire trove here for public perusal. These are some things that we found as we pored through the archive.

    Americans wrote to Fauci with very specific questions about what to do
    Fauci received an email from someone planning a scientific conference scheduled for July 2020 in Tampa, Fla. The person wrote to Fauci asking for a prediction of what the effects of the virus would be then.

    "There is no way of knowing for sure. I would wait until May and see what the dynamics of the outbreak are globally and make your decision then whether or not to cancel," Fauci replied.

    [​IMG]
    The Coronavirus Crisis
    In The '24th Mile' Of A Marathon, Fauci And Collins Reflect On Their Pandemic Year

    One woman wanted to know whether someone who had been vaccinated against pneumonia would have any protection against COVID-19. "I know that you must be completely busy and inundated with people wanting your time, I apologize that I have nothing to offer in return and completely understand if you don't have time to answer," she wrote.

    Fauci replied an hour later, laying out distinctions between pure viral pneumonia and bacterial pneumonia, and suggested she get the pneumonia vaccine if she's over 65.

    The woman was stunned to receive a response from the nation's top infectious disease expert.

    "Oh my God," she wrote. "I honestly never expected you to reply and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for being so generous!"

    [​IMG]
    Your Money
    How Has The Pandemic Changed Your Work Life And Financial Situation?

    A National Institutes of Health (NIH) colleague wrote to Fauci on March 4 to ask whether the weekend's religious services should be canceled at a house of worship after a coronavirus case was apparently identified.

    "You should counsel the rabbi to cancel the services," Fauci replied.

    He pushed back on the suggestion that the Trump White House was muzzling him
    On March 8, 2020, AIDS activist and Yale University epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves emailed Fauci, along with Robert Redfield, then the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; NIH Director Francis Collins; Alex Azar, then the secretary of health and human services; and others.

    Gonsalves wrote, "There are thousands of people waiting for advice from our federal government on broader social distancing measures in light of the fact that our failure in early testing and surveillance means the coronavirus is likely already spreading in our communities."

    [​IMG]
    The Coronavirus Crisis
    March 11, 2020: The Day Everything Changed

    "All we see is genuflection in word and deed from most of you to a White House that wants this all to magically go away," he went on.

    Fauci replied a few hours later: "Gregg: I am surprised that you included me in your note. I genuflect to no one but science and always, always speak my mind when it comes to public health. I have consistently corrected misstatements by others and will continue to do so."

    Gonsalves replied to Fauci that "that part of the message was not directed at you. ... Bob Redfield and Secretary Azar haven't been as forthright as you have."

    "Understood. I appreciate your note. I will keep pushing," Fauci responded.

    Fauci gets a ton of email — and he replies to a surprising amount of it
    Fauci would get about 1,000 emails a day, he told the Post in a recent interview.

    "I was getting every single kind of question, mostly people who were a little bit confused about the mixed messages that were coming out of the White House and wanted to know what's the real scoop," Fauci told the newspaper. "I have a reputation that I respond to people when they ask for help, even if it takes a long time. And it's very time-consuming, but I do."

    Some of those who wrote to him were people in positions of power. Others were simply thanking him for speaking clearly and forcefully during a time of crisis and fear.

    [​IMG]
    Coronavirus Updates
    Alpha, Beta Instead Of Britain, South Africa. Why The WHO Is Renaming COVID Variants

    "You always do the right thing," wrote one man who seemed to know Fauci, addressing him as Tony. "We'll do the praying and you go Keep doing the hard work."

    "Many thanks for your kind note. I hope all is well with you," Fauci replied.

    One doctor wrote to Fauci: "In my review of the data there is a negative association with smoking. Should smoking cessation be mentioned during public announcements to help discourage smoking?"

    Fauci replied 20 minutes later: "Smoking is terrible under any circumstance."

    Sometimes regular people without scientific or medical training would write to him with suggestions of how the coronavirus works or ideas they thought Fauci should look into.

    "Thank you for your note," Fauci often replied.

    He was uncomfortable with his sudden celebrity
    On March 31, 2020, the chief of staff for Fauci's office emailed him an article from the Post that carried the headline "Fauci socks, Fauci doughnuts, Fauci fan art: The coronavirus expert attracts a cult following."

    Fauci replied: "Truly surrealistic. Hopefully, this all stops soon."

    "It is not at all pleasant, that is for sure," Fauci added.

    But he found some upsides in fame too
    Fauci wasn't above taking the occasional perk of sudden fame, at least as a baseball fan.

    A booking agent reached out to Fauci on behalf of Washington Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman about appearing for a Q&A on the ballplayer's Facebook page.

    An NIH communications officer replied: "As a huge Nats fan, Dr. Fauci very much wants to do this chat with Ryan Zimmerman."

    After arranging the interview, the NIH staffer wrote to Fauci, "Ps – what do you want to bet you get invited to throw a first pitch next year?"

    "I was thinking the very same thing," Fauci replied.

    Indeed, Fauci took the mound for opening day in July 2020 in a red Nats mask and made the first pitch. It was not a great throw.

    Perhaps he was tired from dealing with his overstuffed email inbox, among the many, many other things on his plate at the time.

    from: https://www.npr.org/2021/06/03/1002865747/5-things-we-learned-from-anthony-faucis-emails
     
  2. piezoe

    piezoe

    “They only took about 10,000 emails from me, of course I remember. I remember all 10,000 of them. Give me a break,” he said. “I don’t remember what’s in that redacted, but the idea I think is quite far-fetched that the Chinese deliberately engineered something so that they could kill themselves as well as other people. I think that’s a bit far out.” -- Dr. Anthony Fauci
     
    Ricter likes this.
  3. jem

    jem

    Distract and obfuscate.
    Hide the fact he ended the ban on funding the research to weaponize corona virus. (Gain of function) and supported the funding of the Wuhan lab's gain of function research.
     
  4. piezoe

    piezoe

    your words, which don't at all reflect the purpose of the virus research being funded.
     
  5. Ricter

    Ricter

    Wait, the US's covid19 death toll is real??
     
  6. jem

    jem

    WTF are you that much of a mushroom / drone?

    How the hell could weaponization not be part of it...
    when they were doing work to make the virus more deadly and/or more contagious at a military installation owned and run by China's military.



     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2021
  7. piezoe

    piezoe

    There are better answers, Jem, then the one I'm about to give you, but in this case only the simplest answer is sufficient. Viruses make poor weapons. They can't satisfy the requirements for a good weapon. Using a Virus such as the Covid virus as a weapon would be like trying to use an invisible rifle that could fire randomly in all directions.
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2021
    Tony Stark, Ricter and gwb-trading like this.
  8. piezoe

    piezoe

    There are those who will make up their minds based on false information or a misunderstanding after which no amount of logical argument will persuade them.

    This effort, going on right now, to discredit Anthony Fauci in an attempt to take the spotlight off of Donald Trump's ineptness in leading the nation's response to the Covid Pandemic and shift the blame onto Fauci is despicable.
     
    Ricter and gwb-trading like this.
  9. jem

    jem

    better weapons? That is your answer... Just admit it.. gain of function research gain - can be weaponizing of the virus.

    Remember this gain of function research was being done in a lab run by China's military.

    Fauci's team was paying for it...
    and he eliminated the ban on gain of function (weapons creation research)

    ===

    Many viral agents have been studied and/or weaponized, including some of the Bunyaviridae (especially Rift Valley fever virus), Ebolavirus, many of the Flaviviridae (especially Japanese encephalitis virus), Machupo virus, Marburg virus, Variola virus, and yellow fever virus.

    Biological warfare - Wikipedia
    https



     
    Last edited: Jun 10, 2021
  10. gwb-trading

    gwb-trading

    So show us an example of a highly successful biological viral agent being used against a population of people. Oh, wait there are none.

    As noted in the Wiki reference there are multiple issues beyond mere production which make using viruses as a bio weapon less than feasible -
    "Ideal characteristics of a biological agent to be used as a weapon against humans are high infectivity, high virulence, non-availability of vaccines and availability of an effective and efficient delivery system. Stability of the weaponized agent (the ability of the agent to retain its infectivity and virulence after a prolonged period of storage) may also be desirable, particularly for military applications, and the ease of creating one is often considered. Control of the spread of the agent may be another desired characteristic."

    "The primary difficulty is not the production of the biological agent, as many biological agents used in weapons can be manufactured relatively quickly, cheaply and easily. Rather, it is the weaponization, storage, and delivery in an effective vehicle to a vulnerable target that pose significant problems."


    Let's quote your complete paragraph rather than one sentence...
    Agents considered for weaponization, or known to be weaponized, include bacteria such as Bacillus anthracis, Brucella spp., Burkholderia mallei, Burkholderia pseudomallei, Chlamydophila psittaci, Coxiella burnetii, Francisella tularensis, some of the Rickettsiaceae (especially Rickettsia prowazekii and Rickettsia rickettsii), Shigella spp., Vibrio cholerae, and Yersinia pestis. Many viral agents have been studied and/or weaponized, including some of the Bunyaviridae (especially Rift Valley fever virus), Ebolavirus, many of the Flaviviridae (especially Japanese encephalitis virus), Machupo virus, Marburg virus, Variola virus, and yellow fever virus. Fungal agents that have been studied include Coccidioides spp.[50][82]

    Here is the reality - Toxins are a better bio weapon than viruses but these share the same common delivery issues to be effective.
    Toxins that can be used as weapons include ricin, staphylococcal enterotoxin B, botulinum toxin, saxitoxin, and many mycotoxins. These toxins and the organisms that produce them are sometimes referred to as select agents. In the United States, their possession, use, and transfer are regulated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Select Agent Program.
     
    #10     Jun 10, 2021
    piezoe likes this.