Not his first time at the rodeo. I think the country will die on the vine if we don't listen to the health experts. At the same time I think we will die on the vine if we put the medical experts in charge of what is a total national recovery program. I walk a path between those two views. from the bbc Anthony Fauci: The face of America's fight against coronavirus Dr Anthony Fauci has emerged as the face of America's fight against coronavirus. But he is also battling the dangerous spread of misinformation, sometimes from within his own government. Over his five decades as a medical researcher, Anthony Fauci has seen his effigy burnt, heard the cries of protesters calling him a "murderer", and had smoke bombs thrown outside his office window. But he has also been praised as the most famous doctor in America, and the man whose compassion and calm helped the US make otherwise impossible strides in confronting a public health crisis. As head of immunology at the National Institutes of Health during the 1980s HIV/Aids epidemic, Dr Fauci, 79, has seen conflict before. Now, as President Trump has proclaimed that the US stands on a "war footing" to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, he has again become the man at the frontline. Son of a 'Doc' Born on Christmas Eve, 1940 to a family of immigrant Italian pharmacists in Brooklyn, Anthony was "delivering prescriptions from the time I was old enough to ride a bike," he told the Holy Cross college alumni magazine in 2002. In 1966, he graduated first in his class at Cornell medical school, whose library he had helped build as an undergraduate working construction to earn money over the summers. Image copyrightJ CLIN INVEST. 2007 Image captionThe family pharmacy in Brooklyn run by Dr Fauci's father, known in the neighbourhood as 'Doc' Following a medical residency, he joined the NIH in 1968 as part of the US war effort, instead of being drafted to fight in Vietnam. "Yellow Berets", the researchers were called - a play on military division Green Berets. A turning point in his career came decades later, he said, when a report landed on his desk on June 5, 1981, describing the death of an otherwise healthy patient from a strange pneumonia normally seen in people with cancer. Another report soon followed describing 26 deaths, all gay men. "I remember reading it very clearly," he later said. "It was the first time in my medical career I actually got goose pimples. I no longer dismissed it as a curiosity. There was something very wrong here. This was really a new microbe of some sort, acting like a sexually transmitted disease." Medicine man and 'murderer' As a clinician, Dr Fauci's work on the regulation of the human immune system was credited with helping to reveal how the HIV virus destroys the body's defences. He led clinical trials for zidovudine, the first antiretroviral drug to treat Aids. As the epidemic swept through the US in the 1980s, however, he became the target of activists angry at the Reagan administration's muted response and lack of access to novel drugs. Image copyrightJ CLIN INVEST. 2007 Image captionAids activists protesting the government's response to the epidemic in 1988 Protesters held signs outside government offices that said: "Dr Fauci, you are killing us" and he was denounced on television by activists. The playwright and gay rights advocate Larry Kramer even modelled the antagonist of a play after him. "I remember looking out a window and people on the lawn of the NIH were throwing smoke bombs," Dr Fauci recalled in a 2011 interview. "Police were ready to arrest them and I said, 'Don't. Bring them up to my office so I can talk with them'." His compassion for Aids sufferers was lauded, and he was credited with convincing regulators to loosen restrictions on clinical trials for patients to test new drugs. The first confirmed case of HIV in America World-renowned HIV researcher Frank Plummer, 67, dies The New York Times called him "the government's leading Aids celebrity" - but noted that he still actually did all his research work himself, not like "a lot of people you see quoted on TV [who have] assistants don white coats and do all that tedious work". He was awarded the highest US civilian honour, the Presidential Medal, in 2008. In 1984, he was appointed director of the NIH's Allergy and Infectious Diseases division, a title he still holds. Another pandemic The research division he leads has overseen studies on everything from Aids to Ebola to asthma. He has advised six presidents, helping to found George W Bush's US government Aids initiative in Africa and now, serving as explain-in-chief to the public amid the Covid-19 outbreak of the Trump era. For Americans, he has become a trusted presence behind the podium at White House Covid-19 briefings, where he has dispensed facts about the US response, explaining the science and sometimes correcting President Trump's pronouncements. A vaccine will take at least a year and a half, he has said, dampening Mr Trump's optimistic claim one would be ready very soon. The current US leader, who is known to dislike being challenged, has even begrudgingly given Dr Fauci a high compliment. The researcher, Mr Trump has said, is "a major television star". Image copyrightREUTERS However, observers say his contradictions of the president's claims has laid bare the frictions of working with the White House. In a widely shared interview, Dr Fauci told Science magazine that when it comes to giving the public correct information, "I'm trying my best. I cannot do the impossible". "I can't jump in front of the microphone and push him [President Trump] down. OK, he said it. Let's try and get it corrected for the next time." But he will try and stay the course, he said, adding: "To my knowledge, I haven't been fired."
I am not sure I want a scientist making the decisions when the best outcome is determined by balancing many factors. The scientist/doctor should have great input but so should the people who understand the economy best and those who can model overall outcomes best. Finally the Fed Reserve needs to have input because they have to have a feel for how much money they can actually create to fund this before we have hyperinflation. We also have to make sure the FED has the priorities of the people ahead of major corps which are about to crater. Disney's great and everything but they can restructure. The emergency funding and bailouts should go to the people, health care, shipping,food and safety enterprises. (among others) Then we need a really wise person to balance it all.
issues on the corona virus should only be handled by medical professionals, not Trump self-proclaimed expertise of which he has none. When the medical professionals say we need to keep this up and see how it goes I listen to them over Trump who is panicking the virus affects his campaign and wants to open in 2.5 weeks.
Our primary goal needs to be to avoid collapsing the system. We can't care for people in hospital beds if the system collapses. I don't see enough talk about that. Is fauci the guy to avoid systemic collapse? -- I did not bring Trump into this... I answered as a hypothetical to avoid bias. The medical professionals are making judgements based on models which are limited. Even if they are right with respect to whatever they set as the goal. Even if they properly balance care vs herd immunity... Should their goal really be the primary goal of the nation? To make this simple... what if the doctor's models for social distancing and shutdown massively risk a collapse of our ability to farm and to deliver medicines and food to hospitals if this lasts more than 4 months? Plato wrote about philosopher kings for a reason. We need inputs from multiple disciplines. Then we need the best philosopher king. We need a really smart person who has a strong understanding of many disciplines to weigh them all. So far I have heard a lot about hospital beds but precious little about what happens if the economic system seizes up like it did in the great depression. At one point the goods were there out on the farms but there was no way to deliver them and the people could not pay for them... so the whole system seized up.
Essential people are not part of the lockdown and many companies are still operating... try to think outside your box.
We all know essential people are not part of the shutdown. I spoke of the risk of a systemic collapse like the great depression I did not say its happening, has happened or even will happen. In short, I am stating that the risk of collapse must be placed in the model... it must be weighed. Fauci did touch on this issue in the last two minutes of the interview. He said you need to keep all the cylinders firing.