DR ANTHONY FAUCI: Members of the faculty,
distinguished guests,
family members and friends of the graduates
and of course you, the extraordinary 2022 graduating class
of Princeton University, it is really my sincere pleasure
and truly an honor to be your Class Day speaker.
And it is exciting for me to share this fun
and celebratory day with you.
Didn't like the idea about you making fun of my age, Owen.
At least I'm here.
(audience applauds)
Seriously, I've had the privilege of delivering remarks
at a number of graduation exercises over the years.
And more often than not,
I have referred to my own graduation
from college many many years ago, as you reminded me of,
and drew certain analogies between myself and the students
in order to illustrate that in the common landmark
of college graduation,
we likely had shared feelings and common experiences.
Clearly, in one respect, this does not readily apply
to the Princeton Class of 2022.
And let me explain.
The profound ways COVID-19 has disrupted your student years
are unprecedented.
Viewing the situation from my vantage point
at the National Institutes of Health
and as a member of the White House COVID Response Team,
I have a sincere and heartfelt message to you.
Years from now, as you recall your experience
here at Princeton over the past two and a half years
it will be clear that COVID left an indelible mark on you
and your entire generation.
Having said that, I am truly in awe of all of you
since each of you deserves enormous credit and respect
for your extraordinary adaptability, resilience
and dedication to learning, completing your studies
and graduating despite immense difficulties
and uncertainties, and to be left
with the extraordinary humor
that I've seen here this morning.
Now, truth be told,
when I think back on my own graduation from college,
I cannot remember a single word
of what the commencement speaker said.
(audience laughs)
And so years from now,
I do not expect you to remember what I say
but in the next few minutes
I hope to kindle in you some thoughts.
So first, expect the unexpected.
This is an enduring issue that continues to confront me
to this very day.
Planning one's path in life is something we all do
to a greater or lesser degree.
You've already done that to some extent
by having chosen this extraordinary institution
of Princeton University for your undergraduate education.
However, in my own experience,
some of the most impactful events and directions in my life
have been completely unanticipated and unplanned.
You are at a period in your lives
of virtually unlimited potential.
And so please, keep an open mind
and do not shy away from dreaming impossible dreams
and seizing unanticipated opportunities.
Let me describe an example
of such a completely unanticipated challenge and opportunity
that profoundly impacted the direction of my career
and my entire life.
So after graduating from medical school
and following years of residency and fellowship training
I began a journey in 1972
as a young clinical investigator at the NIH.
Over the following nine years,
I progressed to what many considered a very successful, safe
and comfortable career in investigative medicine.
My future seemed settled. Then in June of 1981,
41 years ago next month, my life took a turn.
I remember quite clearly sitting in my NIH office
reading in a CDC report about a handful of cases
of an unusual pneumonia among gay men in Los Angeles.
One month later, 26 additional cases
among gay men from Los Angeles, San Francisco
and New York City, not only with this unusual pneumonia,
but also other rare infections and cancer
were described in a second CDC report.
I didn't even realize it at the time
but we were witnessing the evolution
of one of the worst public health scourges
in recent memory, the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
I became totally engrossed in and fascinated
by this mysterious new disease that did not have a name
and certainly not a meteorologic agent.
I'm still not sure what drove me to do this
but I decided right then and there
to make an abrupt turn in the direction of my career,
abandon my research pursuits and investigate
the pathogenesis of this mysterious disease.
My mentors were horrified and insisted
that I was making a career-ending mistake
and this disease would amount to nothing.
However, the subsequent emergence of the AIDS pandemic
and my decision to pivot and devote my efforts
to this unexpected public health challenge
transformed my professional career, if not my entire life,
and put me on the path that I am on to this very day.
Now, obviously not every opportunity
or challenge that you encounter
is gonna influence your career or your lives,
or be as dramatic
as a mysterious infectious diseases outbreak.
That's for sure.
However, please believe me
that you will confront the same types
of unpredictable events that I've experienced
regardless of what directions your careers or lives take.
And so expect the unexpected
and stay heads up for an unanticipated opportunity,
should it present itself.
Of course, listen to the advice
of those who care about you, your mentors,
but at the end of the day, go with your own gut.
It can be rewarding, exciting
and potentially career- and life-altering.
Next, the failings in our society.
Our country's experience with COVID-19 has shone a spotlight
on one of the great failings in our society,
the lack of health equity.
So as a physician,
I feel that I must highlight this for you today.
COVID-19 has exposed longstanding inequities
that have undermined the physical, social, economic
and emotional health of racial and ethnic minorities.
Many members of minority groups
are at an increased risk of COVID-19
simply because of the jobs they have as essential workers
that does not allow them to isolate themselves
from social activity.
More importantly, when people in minority groups
are infected with the coronavirus
they have a much greater likelihood
of developing a severe consequence due to elevated rates
of underlying conditions, such as hypertension,
diabetes, obesity, chronic lung disease,
among others, that lead to an increased risk
of hospitalization and death.
Now very few of these conditions are racially determined.
Almost all relate to social determinants of health,
experienced since birth, including the limited availability
of a healthful diet, substandard housing,
the lack of access to health care and, tragically,
the restrictions and pressures experienced to this day
because of the undeniable racism
that persists in our society.
Let us promise ourselves --
(audience claps)
Thank you.
A lot of people get upset when I say that,
but it's very true.
Let us promise ourselves that our corporate memory
of the tragic reality of the inequities experienced
with COVID-19 does not fade
after returning to our new normal.
It will take a decades-long commitment
for our society to address these disparities.
I strongly urge you to be part of that commitment.
Together we must find the strength,
the wisdom, the ingenuity and the empathy
to address these entrenched elements of injustice in society
manifested in so many subtle and overt ways,
and work with all our might to remedy
the cultural disease of racism,
just as we fight the viral disease of COVID-19,
which brings me to my next point of discussion.
Public service and social responsibility.
I sincerely believe that regardless of our career paths
we cannot look the other way from pressing societal issues.
There are many communities in our country and globally,
and I know many of you will be working
on an international scale, that are challenged by poverty
drug abuse, violence, inadequate education,
discrimination and despair.
Now some of you may devote your careers and your lives
to directly addressing the societal issues.
Understandably, most of you will not.
In this regard, public service does not necessarily mean
a profession or an advocation devoted entirely
to public service.
One can incorporate elements of public service
into your lives, regardless of your career choice.
This might requiring your exercising a quality
which is my next point of discussion.
Leadership.
You are graduating from an extraordinary institution.
The very fact that you were chosen
to be part of this outstanding Princeton class
in my mind puts something of a burden of responsibility
upon at least some of you to assume leadership roles
in our society.
It does not necessarily have to be designated leadership.
Leadership can take many forms
including the quiet and subtle leadership of example.
Which brings me to my last issue.
And this is a painful one.
Our divided nation.
I have spent
my entire professional career in Washington, D.C.,
as a scientist, a physician, and a public health official.
Although that career path is fundamentally devoid
of politics in the classic sense,
being in Washington has allowed me to experience
firsthand the intensity of the divisiveness in our nation.
What troubles me is that differences of opinion or ideology
have in certain situations been reflected
by egregious distortions of reality.
Sadly, elements of our society
have grown increasingly inured to a cacophony of falsehoods
and lies that often stand largely unchallenged,
ominously leading to an insidious acceptance
of what I call the normalization of untruths.
We see this happen daily with falsehoods propagated
through a range of information platforms
by a spectrum of people, including sad to say,
certain elected officials in positions of power.
(audience applauds)
Yet the outrage and dissent against this alarming trend
has been muted and mild.
If you take away nothing else from what I say today,
I appeal to you, please remember this:
It is our collective responsibility
not to shrug our shoulders and sink to a tacit acceptance
of the normalization of untruths,
because if we do, lies become dominant
and reality is distorted.
And then truth means nothing, integrity means nothing
and facts means nothing.
This is how a society deteriorates into a way of life
where veracity becomes subservient to propaganda
rather than being upheld as our guiding principle.
Seek and listen to opinions that differ from your own
but apply your abilities to critically analyze and examine,
which you have honed well here at Princeton,
to discern and challenge weak assertions
built on untruths.
As future leaders in our society,
we are truly counting on you for that.
In closing, I have been speaking to you
over the past few minutes about the serious issues
that we are facing in our current world.
And so putting this serious business aside
I want to close with a reminder
about the joyousness of life,
what I've seen here today among you
and with the bright future you all have.
Allow yourselves to cultivate this joy
as much as you do your professional accomplishments.
Find your source of joy and happiness and fully embrace it.
And think upon your future, as that stated
by the American political theorist, John Schaar,
and I quote: "The future is not some place we are going to
but one we are creating.
Rhe paths are not to be found but made,
and the activity of making them changes
both the maker and the destination."
Congratulations to you, to your families and loved ones.
Good luck, and God bless you.
(audience applauds)
JULIA JONES CHAFFERS: Thank you, Dr. Fauci
for your inspiring speech
and for all of your leadership
throughout the coronavirus pandemic
and for decades before.
In recognition of your commitment to service
on behalf of our class, it is now my honor
to induct you into the Great Class of 2022.
(audience applauds)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Thank you.
(audience applauds)