-My name is Dr. Tony Fauci.
I'm the director of the National Institute of Allergy
and Infectious Diseases at NIH.
-As the world grapples with the coronavirus,
immunologist Dr.
Anthony Fauci has once again become a public force
that translates complex medical information
into everyday language.
-When you talk to a group like this,
how do you talk the language?
Sometimes you just get, the average person gets lost.
-Well, you have to make sure you are understood.
And I make it a very important goal
that you don't want to impress people
and razzle dazzle them with your knowledge,
you just want them to understand what you're talking about.
-Fauci has been one of the key advisors
to the White House and Department of Health
and Human Services on the virus and how to combat it.
-If we do not successfully do what I just said --
prevent infections from coming in
and dealing with the ones we have, this is a bad virus.
Certainly it is conceivable that if we don't do that,
you could get as bad as Italy.
But I don't think we're going there
if we do the kinds of things that we are publicly
saying we need to do.
We need to be very serious about,
for awhile life is not going to be the way it used
to be in the United States.
We have to just accept that if we want to do what's best
for the American public.
-His approach to the coronavirus started with containment,
mitigation, an increase in testing,
and developing treatments and vaccine.
Something he'd learned from his decades-long career
as one of the government's top infectious disease experts.
Fauci was born in Brooklyn on Christmas Eve 1940
into an Italian-American family.
He grew up delivering prescriptions
to customers from his father's pharmacy.
Fauci graduated first in his class
at Cornell Medical College,
and joined the National Institutes of Health in 1968
to fulfill his military service during the Vietnam War.
he was appointed Director of National Institute of Allergy
and Infectious Diseases in 1984.
-I believe now that we have the agent in hand
that the amount of effort and energy
that's being put into it by biomedical sciences that,
within a reasonable period of time,
we'll have a lot of these answers.
-Fauci is no stranger to leading the federal response
to public health crisis.
His career spanned six presidents
and over 30 years of research.
In the 1980's,
his career heavily focused on the HIV/AIDS crisis.
-I'm working directly on AIDS,
both clinically and from a basic science standpoint.
-He cared for dying patients, met with patient advocates,
and has helped shaped initiatives
to end HIV in the United States.
-But if you look at the history of bioterrorism
and other types of attacks against the United States
and other nations, it dates back to a variety of things,
such as in the early '80s the Tylenol episode.
-In 2001 he helped the public understand
the health dangers of anthrax and bioterrorism.
-The SARS situation is a little bit more serious
than run-of-the-mill.
In fact, substantially more serious
than run-of-the-mill influenza.
-In 2003 it was the SARS outbreak.
-Our patient Nina Pham if free of Ebola virus.
-And in 2014, Ebola.
Fauci has spent his career in laboratories,
at patients' bedsides, in congressional hearings.
-Things will get worse than they are right now.
-And on Sunday morning talk shows.
-I'm not being muzzled.
Everybody who has gets on shows like this.
You have a normal clearance.
I was cleared here and here I am talking to you.
And I'll give you the whole truth the way I always have.
-President George W.
Bush awarded Fauci the Presidential Medal
of Freedom in 2008.
Fauci is the second National Institute of Health
Institute director to receive
the highest civilian award in the United States.
At 79, Dr.
Fauci has not slowed down.
He tries to get 5 hours of sleep each night
and is devoted to power walking and jogging.
-I love to run, so it's one of the few things
that I don't need to look for motivation.
I have a pretty high-stress job.
I spend about 15 hours a day
in my office at the NIH, maybe more.
So, getting outside in the day and hearing the birds
and smelling the grass is kind of a very pleasing thing for me.