My newest FCTRY action figure: Dr. Anthony Fauci, with and without a mask.
I’ve been familiar with Dr. Fauci since I began learning all I could about HIV/AIDS in the early 1990s. He’s served in some capacity in national health since Reagan was president. He was the target of many AIDS activists’ anger because they felt the government wasn’t doing enough to stop illness and deaths. Yet one of the most outspoken of his critics, playwright and founder of GMHC and Act UP Larry Kramer, ultimately called Fauci “the only true and great hero” among government officials during the most active years of the AIDS pandemic.
As a scientist, Fauci has a moral imperative to speak truth to power in a field in which answers may be needed quickly but must come as a result of research and study. The more we learn, the more the answers can be refined. Science is cautious and thorough. Politics is reactive and dependent on the goodwill of people. If you’ve had the Internet since the mid 1990s and have been at all active on social media, “goodwill” seems hardly to exist.
It’s a sad irony that some of the biggest lies of this pandemic have been told–and continue to be told–about Dr. Fauci. It isn’t surprising, however, since most of them come from people who’ve been lying throughout their careers. Lying seems to come as naturally to them as breathing.
Although over the last 14 months, I’ve come to understand that breathing itself is controversial.
I’m now seeing Dr Fauci swinging the light saber of truth, since the past several consecutive weekends have featured a Star Wars movie. Yesterday was Return of the Jedi.
But, yes. The Republicans, as usual, continue to inflict pain and misery on those with a virus that they don’t want to acknowledge existence, never mind show a helping hand. I can’t think why.
I was happy to get my two Fauci ouchies, and so were at least two of my Republican friends/relatives. I wish everybody would see it as a public health matter and not make it political.