Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US's top infectious-disease expert, shared a day in his life, and it's exhausting just reading it
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In an interview with HuffPost, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US's leading infectious-disease expert, laid out a schedule of one of his workdays during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fauci, who still fits patient visits into his day and is escorted by a team of federal agents because of threats to his safety, mentioned one scheduled 20-minute break within the particular 18-hour workday.
That day largely revolved around press appearances and emails.
"I don't socialize," Fauci told HuffPost. "It's my wife and I and the federal agents. We've sort of become like a new family unit."
As the COVID-19 pandemic surges, the US's top infectious-disease expert is seemingly everywhere at once.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who turns 80 next week, gave an interview with HuffPost last week in which he broke down his 18-hour schedule for the day before Thanksgiving. He told HuffPost's Jeffrey Young, who tweeted out a transcript of Fauci's full answer to his question, that every day was different, and, "It's just, you know, drinking out of a firehose trying to keep ahead of everything that's going on."
5:10 a.m. to 6 a.m.: A shower and a shave.
6 a.m. to 6:30 a.m.: Checking emails. Fauci described receiving more than 1,000 emails, which are whittled down to hundreds of critical ones he must address throughout the day.
6:30 a.m. to 7 a.m.: Taping a segment for ABC News' "Good Morning America."
7 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.: Leaving home, with a crew of federal agents for protection, to head to the National Institutes of Health.
7:30 a.m. to 8 a.m.: Appearing on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal."
8 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.: Calling in to WNYC-FM's "The Takeaway."
8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.: Taping an interview with a local Chicago TV station.
9 a.m. to 10 a.m.: Checking up on two severe COVID-19 patients at the NIH Clinical Center alongside their primary physicians.
10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.: Taking part in a videoconference with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases staff.
10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.: Interview with a newspaper reporter.
11 a.m. to 11:50 a.m.: Video meeting with HHS Secretary Alex Azar, NIH Director Francis Collins, CDC Director Robert Redfield, FDA Administrator Stephen Hahn, and others.
11:50 a.m. to noon: A "10-12 min" bathroom break and emails.
Noon to 12:30 p.m.: Interview with theGrio about vaccine skepticism in the Black community.
12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m.: HuffPost's interview.
1 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.: More TV appearances.
1:30 p.m. to 1:50 p.m.: The first true break scheduled that day.
1:50 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.: A newspaper interview.
2:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.: An interview with a scientific journal.
3 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.: Preparing "for an upcoming speech to the Centers for Science and International something-or-other, one of those think tanks in Washington."
3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.: Videoconference with doctors from the White House coronavirus task force.
4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.: Videoconference with NIH vaccine scientists, including Moderna and other producers.
5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.: Phone calls, emails, and more press.
After his arduous schedule, Fauci said he hoped to be home after 7 p.m., where he would finish off the day doing his 45-minute power walk with his wife, Christine Grady, the chief of the Department of Bioethics at the NIH's Clinical Center.
After dinner, he would do more press and check more emails until he said he's "so tired I can't do anymore."
In his interview with HuffPost, Fauci also mentioned that because of COVID-19 and threats made against his life (including a comment by the former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon calling for Fauci's head on a pike), he does not socialize and did not hold any Thanksgiving gatherings with his children.
"I have federal agents that protect me. So they drive me to work, they stay here, they make sure that nobody tries to break in [to my home] and, as Steve Bannon would like, have somebody behead me," Fauci told HuffPost. "I don't socialize. It's my wife and I and the federal agents. We've sort of become like a new family unit."
As vaccines become accessible to the mass public and until the pandemic seriously subsides in the US, Fauci is expecting to be busy, especially as President-elect Vice Biden said Thursday that he planned to keep Fauci in his current position, as well as a chief medical advisor, after taking office.
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