— Former NIAID director also discusses HIV and flu antivirals, his third COVID infection, and more. In this exclusive video interview, Jeremy Faust, MD, editor-in-chief of MedPage Today, talks to Anthony Fauci, MD, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), about his new memoir, On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Serviceopens in a new tab or window.
In this video, Fauci discusses the novelty of COVID and his masking preferences.
Watch Part 1opens in a new tab or window and Part 2opens in a new tab or window of this interview here.
The following is a transcript of their remarks:
Faust: It’s a fascinating book, but let’s talk about some of the chapters, which could be entire books and are entire books by other people.
The real breakthrough in HIV, let’s talk about HIV first. We had AZT [zidovudine, or azidothymidine], the first antiviral, but then the real watershed moment is the combination therapy, Atripla [efavirenz, emtricitabine, and tenofovir]. It’s a really moving section of your book where you describe the way you understood what that meant.
Do we have a similar opportunity with other pathogens like influenza, like COVID? Because I feel that the antivirals we have there have become less useful, and yet there’s not the same motivation or impetus to say, “No, that’s not enough. We need something like an Atripla where it really knocks it into less of a life-threatening fatal disease and more into a chronic infection that you can manage.”