Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Fauci's Released Emails Open Window Into Early Days Of Pandemic
The correspondence from March and April 2020 opens a window to Fauci鈥檚 world during some of the most frantic days of the crisis, when the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was struggling to bring coherence to the Trump administration鈥檚 chaotic response to the virus and President Donald Trump was seeking to minimize its severity. (Paletta and Abutaleb, 6/1)
More than 3,200 pages of emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by BuzzFeed News 鈥 covering the period from January to June 2020 鈥 provide a rare glimpse into how Fauci approached his job during the biggest health crisis of the last century, showing him dealing directly with the public, health officials, reporters, and even celebrities. (The Washington Post also received more than 800 pages of emails and published a story about them on Monday.) The emails reviewed by BuzzFeed News reveal him sparring over an antiviral drug with Ezekiel Emanuel, a former Obama administration health adviser, fielding questions about vaccines, and receiving an update from Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook鈥檚 plans for a coronavirus 鈥渋nformation hub.鈥 (Bettendorf and Leopold, 6/1)
Fauci told the Post that he would receive approximately 1,000 emails a day from colleagues, politicians, medical workers, foreign governments and strangers. "I was getting every single kind of question, mostly people who were a little bit confused about the mixed messages that were coming out of the White House and wanted to know what鈥檚 the real scoop," Fauci said. (Gonzalez, 6/1)
"This is White House in full overdrive and I am in the middle of it," Fauci wrote in a February 2 email published by BuzzFeed. "Reminiscent of post-anthrax days." (Maxouris and LeBlanc, 6/2)
A US health official suggested to Dr. Anthony Fauci early in the pandemic that medical workers could use "doggie cones" instead of personal protective equipment, according to emails obtained by The Washington Post.聽 ... In response to the suggestion from the Department of Health and Human Services official that dog cones 鈥 used to stop dogs from scratching dressings or wounds 鈥 could be used as PPE, Fauci replied with a polite thank you, The Post said. (Bostock, 6/2)
As Anthony Fauci, the US鈥檚 leading infectious diseases official, grappled with the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic last spring, he was pulled in many directions. Donald Trump鈥檚 White House, which was downplaying the dangers, was demanding he portray the outbreak on their terms; the media was hungry for answers; and Fauci鈥檚 email inbox was constantly full with officials, the public and celebrities offering advice and seeking information about the world鈥檚 deadliest health crisis for a century. (Luscombe and Pengelly, 6/1)