Anthony Fauci, the well-known US immunologist and medical advisor to the White House, tested positive for Covid, and has mild symptoms. He announced the National Institute for the Prevention of Infectious Diseases (Niaid), of which he is director. Fauci is 81 years old and has been subjected to two vaccine boosters to date. The Institute he heads has made it known that he will isolate himself and continue to work from home.
The appeal of the last few weeks
Just in recent weeks Fauci has launched an appeal “not to let your guard down” against the pandemic because, he said, “the numbers of infections are going in the wrong direction in the US”. In fact, cases are increasing in a large part of the Union. Furthermore, during an interview with PBS, the immunologist observed: “We are far from the explosive phase of infections, but these are rising”, and expressed concern in particular for the elderly and the frail.
“We must not do the wrong things, forget to push vaccinations and boosters and then find ourselves in a bad situation – he stressed -. The pandemic is not over”.
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“We need new funds”
President Biden’s adviser also stressed the need for congress to approve new research funds, a hot topic in the US these days, recalling that they are trying to “make available a drug like Paxlovid – which is an antiviral capable of decrease the risk of hospitalization for Covid by 90% – and studies are being conducted to optimize the boosters we will need before winter “. “But – he concluded – if we do not have the resources we are asking for, we will not have enough antivirals, we will not be able to produce even better ones and we will not have the necessary boosters”.
The US immunologist has been dedicated to the Covid pandemic for over two years, the latest act of a career focused on the study of infectious diseases. Fauci, who joined the National Institutes of Health in 1968 as a clinical researcher in the NIAID Laboratory of Clinical Investigation, moved to the head of the Physiological Clinic section in 1974 and has been in charge of the Immunology laboratory since 1980.
Furthermore, in 1984 he was appointed director of the National Institute for the study of allergies and infectious diseases. He is considered one of the leading virology experts in the world. His contributions to research on AIDS, HIV, Sars, Ebola and Mers were important. And now he is part of the White House task force for the Coronavirus