Q&A with Anthony Fauci
FAUCI
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Jessica Leving
Boston University Washington News Service
Nov. 19, 2009
WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 — Anthony S. Fauci‘s office at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is so decorated with awards, press clippings and diplomas—including his 1962 diploma from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester—that there is hardly any wall space left unexposed.
His monumental research into diseases most people squirm to think about—malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, pandemic flu—has led Mr. Fauci, 68, to become one of the most-cited scientists in all disciplines throughout the world, according to a study by the Institute for Scientific Information.
These days, as director of the institute, he barely has time to collect the accolades. With the country in a frenzy to get the H1N1 flu virus under control, Mr. Fauci is working around the clock conducting research, advising government officials, and even, twice a week, treating patients.
It has been, he said, “the perfect storm in misfortunes.”
In an interview between his many engagements, Mr. Fauci gave some updates on how it’s all coming along—and how he’s holding up.
Q: How has the U. S. government reacted to the H1N1 pandemic?
A: The preparation has been excellent. Within days of the discovery of a completely new virus, the virus was isolated, characterized and put into form to make as a vaccine.
Q: How has preparation stepped up since the bird flu scare? Were the mechanisms in place to produce enough of the [H1N1] vaccine?
A: We’ve made phenomenal advances [since the bird flu]. But it doesn’t happen overnight. The Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Plan was started in the last administration. The fact that we don’t have it ready right now is not a surprise, because technologies and science and discovery usually take years.
The time-honored but somewhat fragile technology for making influenza vaccine is to grow it in eggs. Sometimes viruses grow well, and sometimes they don’t. The H1N1 virus [vaccine] in this case did not grow very well. Unfortunately that technology let us all down this particular year. If it was any other seasonal flu, the cushion of time that you had on either end would have easily compensated for the slowness, and by the time you needed it, it would have been available. But since we had to out of necessity start three months late, and the flu was waiting for us at end of August, when kids came back to school, it was, as we call it, the perfect storm in misfortunes.
Q: Do you think the public has reacted appropriately to the H1N1 scare?
A: The general public is very skeptical about vaccines at all. In some respects, we’ve been victims of our own success. We’ve been so successful in controlling, if not eliminating, the diseases that vaccines are made for that all the public sees are vaccines that may have some finite risk. No vaccine is 100 percent safe, but the risk of the disease is far greater than the risk of the vaccine.
Q: So what should we expect to see next with H1N1 as we really get into the thick of flu season in the next few months?
A: We’re going to get through the season. We’re going to get more vaccines. The more vaccines, the better we’re going to do. The pandemic is going to come under control, hopefully sooner rather than later. The last I heard, we have now 49.9 million doses of vaccines ordered. Just a few weeks ago we were around 12 million doses.
Q: Aside from H1N1, you’ve also done a lot of work with HIV/AIDS research, and last month there was talk of a vaccine trial in Thailand. Is an HIV vaccine on the horizon?
A: The study in Thailand was a very slight but nonetheless important advance. No one is claiming that this is a vaccine for prime time under any circumstances, but it’s an important step forward in our knowledge about where we need to go with this vaccine.
Q: So do you think we will see an HIV vaccine that can be distributed sometime relatively soon?
A: It’s impossible to predict. This is still in the stage of discovery. There are so many unknowns, the most important of which is: why does the body not naturally mount a response that’s adequate enough to control HIV infection? It can’t. That’s very unique.
Q: With the country in the middle of a flu pandemic, and HIV research still being conducted, along with all kinds of other research, how do you fit it all in?
A: I work 22 hours a day. I have a lot of different hats. Right now I’m very much consumed with H1N1.
Q: In an interview with The Washington Post a few years back, you said you were not planning to retire any time soon. Is that still the case?
A: That is still the case. I probably have about another 35 years to go.
Q: Do you ever have time to relax?
A: Right now we’re in the middle of a pandemic—so no. When it’s not a pandemic, I occasionally have a beer.
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