5 Takeaways from Dr. Anthony Fauci’s New Memoir

Former President Donald Trump thought the coronavirus would “magically disappear” and chided him for saying it wouldn’t happen. Former President George HW Bush offered him the position of head of the National Institutes of Health, and he turned it down. AND former president Barack Obama prevented him from writing an op-ed in the New York Times about ending the AIDS epidemic because he was “off message.”

These are just some of the revelations of “On duty: a doctor’s journey in public service,” Dr. Anthony Fauci’s new memoir that was published on Tuesday.

In it, the country’s former top infectious disease expert, now 83, tells how he helped guide the country through two major public health crises: AIDS and COVID-19.

Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), served under seven presidents, including Trump and Biden. He also served as Biden’s chief medical adviser. He resigned from both positions in 2022.

Fauci also describes his upbringing as the son of Italian immigrants in Brooklyn, walking readers through his six-decade career as a doctor and public servant.

But it was his tenure under Trump, with whom he frequently clashed over the U.S. response to the pandemic, that made Fauci a household name — and a bogeyman of far-right conspiracy theorists.

Here are five takeaways from Fauci’s new memoir.

Trump shouted at Fauci for saying COVID vaccines were only effective for up to a year

Fauci writes that on June 3, 2020, three months into the pandemic, Trump “started yelling at me” for claiming that the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines would only last six months to a year.

According to Fauci, Trump was furious that booster shots would likely be needed after the initial vaccines were released.

“It was quite a phone call,” Fauci recalls in the book. “The president was angry, saying I couldn’t continue doing this to him. He said he loved me, but the country was in trouble and I was making the situation worse.”

“I have very thick skin,” he adds. “But getting yelled at by the president of the United States, no matter how much he says he loves you, is not fun.”

In his last call with Fauci, Trump predicted he would win the 2020 election in a “damn landslide.”

On November 1, 2020, just days before the presidential election, Trump called Fauci from Air Force One to tell him he would not fire him, despite pressure from his supporters to do just that.

“Everyone wants me to fire you, but I’m not going to fire you. You have a very illustrious career,” Trump said, according to Fauci. “But you have to be positive. The country cannot remain closed. You have to give them hope.

“I like you,” Trump continued, according to Fauci’s memoir. “But a lot of people, not just in the White House but across the country, hate you because of what you’re doing.”

In the same call, Trump unloaded “that son of a bitch” Joe Biden.

“I will win this election by a landslide,” Trump said. “And that damn Biden. He’s so stupid. I’m going to kick his ass in this election.”

Fauci has received numerous death threats, including a letter with white powder

As a result of his public clashes with Trump, Fauci has received numerous death threats. In the book, he details a particularly unnerving episode in August 2021, when he opened a letter that contained white powder along with a chilling message.

“MANDATORY LOCKDOWNS,” it said in capital letters. “REAP WHAT YOU SOW. ENJOY YOUR GIFT.”

Subsequent tests determined the powder was harmless, but for several hours Fauci feared he had been exposed to a deadly toxin.

“I am not afraid of death,” Fauci writes. “But I wasn’t ready to leave this earth yet. Not by a long shot.”

Fauci turned down George HW Bush’s offer to become head of the NIH

In 1989, Fauci turned down an offer from then-President George HW Bush to become head of the National Institutes of Health, the nation’s top health agency.

But because Fauci enjoyed working as head of NIAID’s Immunoregulation Laboratory and didn’t want a job with immense administrative responsibilities, he declined.

“Mr. President,” Fauci remembers telling Bush in the Oval Office: “I believe I can best serve you and the country if I stay where I am.”

Fauci recalled that as he left, then-White House Chief of Staff John Sununu smiled and said, “You son of a bitch. Nobody says no to the president.”

Fauci grew frustrated with the ‘realities of Washington’

Fauci generally speaks highly of his bosses, from Reagan to Biden, but was often troubled by the “frustrating realities of Washington, D.C.,” namely the partisan politics that hampered public health initiatives.

Fauci writes that under President George W. Bush, he wanted the administration to make a big push in the fight against tuberculosis and malaria and made a proposal that Bush include the effort in his final State of the Union address. (A malaria was mentioned, but without a request for funding, recalls Fauci. Tuberculosis was not even discussed.)

During the Obama administration, Fauci pushed for a new initiative aimed at creating an “AIDS-free generation” and even proposed writing an op-ed in the New York Times about the possibility of ending the AIDS pandemic. But an Obama White House official noted that Fauci’s draft included a funding request and demanded that he withdraw the proposal as “off message.”