Dr Anthony Fauci has smirked as he recounted how the pandemic turned him into an international celebrity in a recent interview.
Speaking on ABC’s ‘This Week,’ the White House COVID tsar, 81, looked pleased with himself recalling how he hasn’t had to introduce himself since his first appearance at a White House COVID-19 briefing in February, 2020.
The interview also revealed that Fauci has a pillow bearing his own face and a quote credited to himself – ‘It is what it is.’ – on an arm chair in his living room.
ABC didn’t share a glimpse of said cushion – but it is available to purchase online for $40. Fauci wasn’t asked if he’d bought the pillow himself, or it if was a gift.
The interview comes as Fauci’s 54 years at the National Institutes of Health are due to come to a close at the end of this year, when he steps down from his position as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Dr. Anthony Fauci smirked recounting how the pandemic turned him into an international celebrity in a recent interview with ABC
The interview revealed that Fauci has a pillow bearing his own face and a quote credited to himself on an arm chair in his living room, similar to the one pictured
Fauci sat down in his living room with ABC’s Jonathan Karl, who recalled Fauci’s first time stepping to the podium during a COVID briefing.
‘I vividly remember your very first appearance in the White House briefing room in one of the COVID briefings, where a reporter shouted out, interrupted you, and asked you to say your name,’ Karl said. ‘I suspect that may have been the last time your were asked to identify yourself.’
‘Yeah, I think so, in fact a lot has happened since then that’s been an amazing journey that all of us have been through, and still are in actually,’ Fauci responded, with a simpering smile.
Karl asked Fauci what it was like to become an icon.
‘You became an icon. It was kind of wild to see,’ Karl said. ‘There were Fauci bobbleheads. People had Fauci shirts that said ‘In Fauci We Trust.’ You became somebody the whole country was turning to. What was that like?’
‘I was pretty well known among my peers in science, but certainly not to the extent it is now,’ Fauci said. ‘You know, I actually think both extremes, Jon, are aberrations of a reflection of the divisiveness in our country.’
Speaking on ‘This Week’ the 81-year-old Fauci recalled how he hasn’t had to introduce himself since his first White House COVID briefing appearance
Fauci is retiring at the end of this year after 54 years at the National Institutes of Health
Fauci went on to explain that even though many in the United States did not agree with, he still considered the entire country to be his ‘patient.’
‘I look upon the country, in many respects, as my patient,’ he said. ‘And when you – if you’re a really good physician, you are concerned and worry about every element of your patient.’
‘Including how your patient is going to react to something you said?’ Karl said.
‘Exactly,’ Fauci said. ‘Exactly. And even if the patient is somebody who’s not the most attractive person in the world in the sense of personality, you still got to treat them the way you would treat anybody else. We learned that in medical school.’
Fauci speaks at a White House COVID-19 briefing on February 29, 2020, one of his first appearances during the pandemic
Fauci holds his head as he stands behind President Trump at a COVID-19 briefing in March, 2020
During the interview Fauci also doubled down on his mask mandate recommendations, saying he wished he could take back comments he made early in the pandemic that masks were not necessary.
‘Would you take back what you said about masks?’ Karl later asked.
‘Yeah,’ Fauci said. ‘I mean, sure, if I had to do it over again. Of course. Again, if I tell you why we did it, it would be interpreted as making an excuse, and I don’t want to go there because that creates nothing but backlash. If I had to do it over again, I would have analyzed it a little bit better.’
Fauci agreed that school closures were a bad idea, but insisted they had nothing to do with him. Individual states were able to dictate how schools should reopen.
The veteran health expert did concede that he was wrong to flip-flop on masks, having told Americans at the start of the crisis they weren’t necessary.
Fauci later became a firm advocate of face-coverings, and claimed he’d only advised against them initially to preserve stocks for doctors when they were in short supply.
Asked how he hope to be remembered, Fauci said he wanted to remembered as somebody who gave it his all.
‘I want to be remembered as someone who gave everything they had for the public health of the American public and indirectly for the rest of the world, because we’re such a leader in science and public health,’ he said. ‘I mean, I just want people to know that I gave it everything I had and didn’t leave anything on the field. I was all there.’