Anthony Fauci’s firmness in the face of Trump’s anti-scientific stance is rightly celebrated, but this documentary doesn’t fully examine his record on Aids
Retirement age doesn’t apply to the increasingly legendary Dr Anthony Fauci, who at 80 years old continues in US public life like a benign version of J Edgar Hoover, or maybe like a
Supreme Court justice. This documentary from National Geographic gives him something like the Ruth Bader Ginsburg treatment. Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, having taken up that post in 1984 and served under seven presidents (so far), from Reagan to Biden; he is now at the vanguard of the fight against Covid-19, and is the rational conscience of America when it comes to calmly facing down the political anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers encouraged by Trump.
This is a celebratory film, and it’s easy to agree with its praise for Fauci’s intellectual heroism, especially when reactionary anti-science charlatanism is running rampant across the internet and the political right. But the documentary maybe doesn’t nail the historical paradox at its centre: Fauci has been vilified twice in his life, from different directions. During the Aids crisis of the 1980s, he was hammered by Act Up for not doing enough, and during Covid, he is hammered by the Maga-ites for doing too much. Gay activists said he was part of a conventional hetero establishment that proceeded cautiously against Aids, not taking it seriously as a public health emergency; Trumpites say he is part of the big government establishment that’s all too active in curtailing liberties.