Dr. Fauci was at St. John's, Lafayette Square

The Rev. Robert W. Fisher, right, interviews Dr. Anthony Fauci at St. John's Church, Mar. 19, 2023/By Patricia Leslie

The Reverend Robert W. Fisher called it a “fireside chat,” and that’s what it was when Dr. Anthony Fauci visited the Adult Forum at St. John’s Church, Lafayette Square to talk about his life and answer a few questions.

Dr. Fauci grew up in a mixed Italian, Puerto Rican, Jewish, African-American, Catholic Brooklyn neighborhood where his family’s mantra was to give back to the community and perform public service, a mission which has influenced him throughout life. 

It was a sense of "service for others and not for financial gain," Dr. Fauci said.

Neighbors, friends, and family members took care of each other, amidst a great sense of community, Dr. Fauci said.

Church vestry member Wendy J. Fibison introduced him at St. John's as our "our national treasure," similar to "hero" which candidate George H.W. Bush called him during a 1988 presidential debate.  

Appearing very much at ease before a friendly crowd of about 150, Dr. Fauci displays a “great bedside manner,“ Rev. Fisher said.

Beginning with Ronald Reagan, Dr. Fauci has served seven U.S. presidents as medical advisor, all good relationships, "with the exception of one," he said to audience laughter. No names were mentioned.

Before he visited the White House in his official role the first time, a mentor cautioned Dr. Fauci that the White House was a seductive place where invitations to return were always desirable, and sharing bad news was not something you wanted to present to the leader, but it was a requirement of the job and he did it, offering "inconvenient truths" when necessary.

Dr. Fauci said the many unknowns about Covid-19 produced the evolving treatments to fight the virus. 

Denying there was any "flip-flop," and terming the pandemic as a "gaslight," Dr. Fauci said it was "a rapidly evolving situation" and "we didn’t know that Covid was spread by breathing by persons without symptoms!" 

He likened fighting over Covid treatment to "the Army fighting with the Navy in a war."

"We had a common enemy, but we fought each other," he said.

He guaranteed another pandemic will come, perhaps not in the lifetimes of many present, but "it is going to happen again. We must use the lessons we’ve learned." 

(Before Covid, the last pandemic was the 1918 flu which killed about 50 million persons worldwide.)

Dr. Fauci said there is undisputed truth that persons who are vaccinated and boostered are better protected against Covid. "It's a slam dunk."

Those who disagree about vaccines should not be made to feel "stupid and dumb," but "we are evolving into an anti-vaccine era“ and taking “a gigantic step backwards."

As for "gain of function, generally when someone talks about it, they don’t know what they’re talking about.“

Many envy Dr. Fauci's good health at age 82 which he attributed to a combination of physical, emotional and spiritual well-being, noting that being perfectly balanced in all areas is unlikely, but you can try.

He's always been active physically, “running marathons, and half marathons." Plus, it's important to have a close association with someone to help you decompress, he said, acknowledging his wife sitting nearby. 

“If I had to do it alone, that would be very difficult," he said.

When a church member asked him about his book, Dr. Fauci said he has not written one, and although he's officially "retired," he's not retired because he forgot about retirement and scheduled events for three months out from retirement.

He advises his medical students to “expect the unexpected,“ the way his life has gone.

A valuable lesson he's learned in Washington, D.C., he said to laughter, is to be "very nice to everybody in Washington, D.C."

patricialesli@gmail.com

Book review: Bob Woodward's 'Rage'

Readers, he's much worse than you thought.

The first quarter of Rage is rather ho-hum, nothing much new as Bob Woodward sets the stage.  Momentum picks up when the Trump interviews begin.

This, with Michael Cohen's Disloyal, serve up a man as scatter-brained, tempestuous, vindictive, immature, hateful and superficial as one can possibly imagine any fictional character to be, but he is real, and, praise God, soon to leave Washington, D.C. for, we hope, forever.  Goodbye, you n'er do well!  2021 is looking better and better.

These books confirm my observation that Trump is not that smart. He's more like a toddler throwing temper tantrums. It's all for him or nothing. "I want my way! I want my way!" he bellows, and like a subservient parent, the media gives him "his way" (Cohen). The media elected him, says Cohen. Wait, this is a review of Woodward's book, not Cohen's. Where was I? (Now on to Bolton's.)

Interspersed in Rage are sections on Dr. Anthony Fauci, who, of course, plays a key role as coronavirus takes the spotlight and control from Trump and his sycophants.  The revelations about covid-19's strangulation of the U.S. brings one of the book's few humorous parts when Dr. Fauci describes Trump on page 354:  "His attention span is like a minus number.... His sole purpose is to get re-elected." 

No wonder Trump kicks up a fuss when he loses!  He will not believe it, and no one will tell the emperor he has no clothes.  He's nothing but a blunderbuss who recalcitrant Retrumplicans (Chris Cuomo) are afraid to challenge since the bully may sick a sickophant (sic!) their way! 

Mr. Woodward and Trump give serious discussion to the possibility that China deliberately set the U.S. on virus fire mimicking the SARS outbreak in 2002.

Mr. Woodward's epilogue ends:

 "When his performance as president is taken in its entirety, I can only reach one conclusion:  Trump is the wrong man for the job."  

For a second Rage edition, may I suggest the addition of a leaderboard for readers like me who find it somewhat difficult to keep all the players straight.   

Also, a correction for the location of the Feb. 11, 2020 event (page 244) found in "Source Notes" (p. 411) with Dr. Fauci at the Aspen Institute: It was held here, at Aspen's offices in Washington, D.C. not in Colorado . I know because I was there, and although unlikely, it is possible that the panel presented the same subject on the same day at the Aspen offices in Colorado. (One of the panelists was Ron Klain, later appointed to be President-Elect Biden's chief of staff. Also, it was the same day coronavirus got its official name, covid-19.) 

About the number of presidents (p. 391):  Although there have been 45 presidencies, there have only been 44 presidents since Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms (1885-1889 and 1893-1897).

patricialesli@gmail.com