Fauci: When Confronted With Misinformation, Stick to the Science

While public health professionals don’t get formal training on how to operate in highly politically charged and divisive environments, the best thing to do is stick to the facts, evidence, and data, Anthony Fauci, MD, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), told an audience of health policy graduate students on Wednesday.

“Realize that you will be faced with policy decisions, sometimes controversial. You will be faced with pushback, particularly now as we have seen for the last couple of years. And I don’t think it’s going to get any better before it gets worse,” Fauci told students during a Georgetown University Health and the Public Interest seminar.

Fauci recalled his experience under the Trump administration when he sometimes “got into major trouble” for sticking to the science, particularly when Trump “didn’t want the COVID outbreak to interfere with the election that was coming up.”

“He would say, ‘Oh, this outbreak is going to go away like magic.’ And I would say, ‘No, it’s not going to go away like magic.’ It’s going to be with us because it’s a very unusual virus,” he said. “And then he was looking for magical solutions, like hydroxychloroquine is the cure for COVID, or ivermectin is going to save us all.”

“If I had gone along with that, then I would have been compromising my principles and my responsibility to the American public,” Fauci added. “So that’s a rather dramatic example of how you cannot allow political considerations to influence what you do and what you say. As a scientist, you’ve got to stick with the data and the facts.”

He acknowledged that this can be challenging in the context of an evolving pandemic. As new information appeared, for instance, recommendations would change. But it’s not an easy task to get the wider public to understand the scientific process, he said.

“What happens is that when scientists … change their recommendations, it can sometimes — understandably, but inappropriately — be interpreted as flip-flopping,” Fauci said. “And when your audience thinks you’re flip-flopping, they then start to lose confidence in science, when actually it’s just the opposite. It’s the science that’s self-correcting as new information comes along.”

Yet that provides an opportunity for misinformation to take hold. He noted that we have recently seen a “normalization of untruths,” where complete fabrications can get amplified via social media.

The counter to that, he said, is to “spread as much correct information as you possibly can.” At the same time, he acknowledged that those who spread misinformation are “a very energetic group” that seems to have the time, energy, and resources to “outgun” public health officials.

“We shouldn’t get discouraged, but to what extent possible, we should participate in the spreading of correct information,” he said, adding that public health advocates should fight on the misinformation turf of social media — even though Fauci himself said he doesn’t “get involved with social media.”

Students asked questions about restoring trust between the public and public health professionals. Fauci said this is “going to be a real heavy lift because of the degree of divisiveness in our country,” noting how Congressional debates can seem like one side believes “the sky is red and on the other side … they think the sky is green.” And watching television news like Fox News or MSNBC can make it seem “like you’re in two different galaxies.”

The divide hasn’t been this dramatic any time before in Fauci’s 50-year career, during which he’s advised seven different presidents, he said.

“There would be disagreements, but when you’re dealing in good faith with trying to do what’s best for the country, it really turns into one of the great themes of ‘The Godfather’: ‘It’s nothing personal, it’s strictly business,'” he said. “So you can really maintain differences of opinion and still maintain cordial relationships.”

“That has been the secret sauce of how our country has done politically so well over decades,” Fauci said. “Unfortunately, in the current climate, politically, we’re not seeing that.”

He noted that when he first started advising Democratic and Republican administrations, representatives from either side of the aisle “could argue against or for different things on the floor of Congress, and then at the end of the day go out and have drinks together and be friends. Unfortunately, we don’t see that in Washington right now. There appears to be an enmity between the different parties and very few people have close friends in the other party. … It’s getting tougher and tougher to maintain that collegiality.”

Nonetheless, Fauci said he believes there are “better angels” in both parties and that once people with different ideologies realize they are more alike than different, America can move past its polarization “which is really rather profound.”

Fauci has experienced that polarization first-hand numerous times, most recently as he sat through a 2-day hearing of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, which under Republican control has in part focused on the origin of the COVID pandemic.

Students also caught a glimpse of Fauci’s personal side by asking questions about maintaining his mental health during stressful times. In addition to praising his partner for being a strong pillar of support, he said he appreciates the stress reduction of working out. While he used to run marathons, these days he’s more into power walking.

“A day doesn’t go by that I don’t do some sort of physical exercise,” he said.

And that doesn’t mean he fastidiously avoids junk food. When asked about his favorite candy in light of the upcoming Easter holiday, he said it was Kit Kats.

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