

“I have said in the past that what keeps me up at night is the possibility of a pandemic respiratory infection. A list of questions followed: Can the virus be contracted from a corpse? Can someone who has taken hydroxychloroquine for years contract the virus? Are masks and gloves truly effective?įinally: “What keeps you up at night, regarding COVID-19?”įauci forwarded the email to some of his top advisers and asked for help crafting a response.

“You are the voice of reason for millions of concerned citizens,” wrote the official, whose name was redacted in the released emails. On April 14, 2020, a day when nearly 3,000 Americans would die of covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, Fauci received an earnest list of questions from a senior official in the Office of the Surgeon General in the Army and U.S. Name redacted, antiterrorism and insider threat officer | “All is well despite some crazy people in this world.” “Thank you for your kind note,” Fauci replied three days later. Hope you are well under such a irrational situation,” Gao wrote on April 8. “I saw some news (hope it is fake) that are being attacked by some people. National Academy of Sciences, emailed again. And even as Trump ratcheted up attacks on China for not containing the virus after it was first discovered there, Fauci sought to maintain ties with Gao, a well-regarded Chinese scientific leader - and Gao with him.Īfter Fauci faced threats from Trump supporters who blamed him for supporting social distancing rules that closed schools, tanked the economy and threatened Trump’s reelection prospects, Gao, a member of the U.S. The released emails show that Fauci indeed tried to answer many queries, sometimes hitting “send” well after midnight.

And it’s very time consuming, but I do” respond. “I have a reputation that I respond to people when they ask for help, even if it takes a long time. “I was getting every single kind of question, mostly people who were a little bit confused about the mixed messages that were coming out of the White House and wanted to know what’s the real scoop,” Fauci said in a recent interview. And a senior House Republican told Fauci to “keep being a science truth teller” despite skepticism about the virus from other GOP lawmakers and Trump himself. An adviser to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates expressed concern about Fauci’s health. A documentary filmmaker working on a forthcoming Disney-backed biopic asked to ride along as Fauci drove to work.
#REDACTED EMAIL FUNNY HOW TO#
The medical director of the National Football League Players Association asked Fauci for a confidential briefing on how to safely start the next NFL season. President Trump listens as Fauci speaks with members of the coronavirus task force at a briefing at the White House on March 31. The emails show that he was inundated with correspondence from colleagues, hospital administrators, foreign governments and random strangers - about 1,000 messages a day, he says at one point - writing to seek his advice, solicit his help or simply offer encouragement. Now serving his seventh president, Fauci, 80, is helping to craft President Biden’s pandemic strategy, and many Republicans accuse him of playing a key role in Trump’s loss in the November election.ĭuring daily televised briefings at the White House, Fauci emerged as an at times reluctant - and polarizing - media star: To Trump supporters, he was a contrarian who seemed to undermine the president at every turn, while others viewed him as a reassuring voice of reason. The correspondence from March and April 2020 opens a window to Fauci’s world during some of the most frantic days of the crisis, when the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was struggling to bring coherence to the Trump administration’s chaotic response to the virus and President Donald Trump was seeking to minimize its severity.įauci’s actions during that period and beyond remain an intense focus for many Americans and political leaders. The previously unreported exchange was among 866 pages of Fauci’s emails obtained by The Washington Post as part of a Freedom of Information Act request.
