<nettime> Fauci's early plague years

[David Garcia <d.garcia@new-tactical-research.co.uk>]

Fauci’s Plague Years

Dr. Anthony Fauci has become something of a hero in the US. And with good reason as he may be all that stands between Trump 
and catastrophe in the US. 

But to see him standing next to Trump on the podium is to be reminded that in a former life he was also one of the primary targets for ACT UP the 
formidable AIDS grass roots campaigning group. Those attacks on Fauci culminated when 1500 activists marching to his office waving "Fuck 
You Fauci" banners and throwing smoke bombs.. Attacking the agency for denying patients access to clinical drug trials. For many activists he is 
still seen as a key culprit in delaying the roll out of PCP Prophylaxis back in the late eighties and early 90s. 

This history was brought home to me vividly in a recent BBC radio profile on Fauci which featured HIV AIDS activist Peter Staley describing how the 
protests "put a fire under his feet”…” and seemed to do the trick as “within a few moths the executive committee of the AIDS clinical trials group met 
with Tony and they caved at that point”.. “So” claims Staley "it was that demonstration that broke the log jam.”

Staley pays Fauci a tribute, describing how  “unlike every other member of the US government he invited us to meet with him right away… he also 
had zero homophobia unlike all of our targets at the time”. Fauci not only listened he also changed his mind. But too late for many activists of whom 
a significant number to this day see him as complicit in many hundreds of unnecessary deaths.  

But Staley tells another side of this story which explains why this activist counts Fauci as a friend. Its worth quoting his words in full 

“During the worst AIDS years hundreds of dying gay men filled up nearly every hospital 
room at the National Institute for Health Clinical hospital and Tony Fauci was their physician.
he lost hundreds and hundreds of patients. The amount of loss that he witnessed is extraordinary. 
and what I have come to know through my friendship with TonyIs that the scars that I carry from 
the plague years are scars he carries to. I’ve cried with Tony and he is the man for this moment..

Maybe Fauci learned something from the communicative genius of ACT UP as during the 2013 Ebola out break he went out of his way 
to dispel American fears by publicly hugging Nina Fam a US nurse infected after caring for a dying patient when she was considered 
free of the virus and discharged from hospital. 

A well known English writer and activist put things in perspective for me recently when he warned that this was not "the moment to visit old battle 
fields unless there is something to be learned from them and applied to the current emergency”  adding that “our righteous anger about all those 
who died dreadful and largely avoidable deaths from PCP should not be used to undermine Dr Fauci’s potential role in saving lives in the 
COVID 19 scandal in the USA.” 

So can anything be learned and applied from the plague years to the current emergency? Is it too early for activism and even rage ? What would 
COVID 19 activism even look like? One thing we learned was that Fauci was that rare thing a scientist willing to listen to those outside of the 
hierarchies of power. And even entertain the idea that expertise might be found anywhere. The implication of this conclusion is that if we are
to prevent the fleet-footed populist demagogues from capiatlising on the aftermath of the crisis with more lies, blame and gas-lighting we will 
need to begin by fundamentally recasting the relationship between the political class, experts and citizens.     

  
David Garcia
 


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