'Precision of thought and economy of expression': Anthony Fauci reflects on career

Sept. 2 (UPI) -- At 81, Dr. Anthony Fauci is about to leave a decades-long position as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the end of this year as he contemplates what's next for him. All he knows for sure is he won't just sit in his house.

Speaking in an interview published in the journal Science, Fauci said it was not the death threats against him and his family, the media attacks or attacks by Republicans like Sen. Rand Paul in Congress often fueled by misinformation that triggered his decision to quit.

"It was none of the above," Fauci told interviewer Jon Cohen. "Despite the knives and the slings and the arrows, I've achieved a degree of being kind of a hero to some people. So let me use that to inspire people. So I said, when can I do that? I decided over the spring and summer that the best time to do it is when you're getting somewhat of a steady state with this disease, so I could transition out of here."

Despite being a hero to some Americans for his role during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fauci was hated by others, so much so he has a Secret Service protective detail.

Fauci blasted "radical fringe groups" for their conspiracy theories in a commencement address at City College of New York in June. He tested positive for the virus later that month.

For those who believe he was inconsistent in his pandemic advice, Fauci said the scientific process is dynamic and the approach changes with evolution of data.

Fauci said that is not inconsistent. It's science.

"When you're dealing with a pandemic response, it's very dynamic, and a somewhat mysterious evolution of a process that has a lot of consequences, because people's lives are involved," Fauci told Science. "The public expects you to analyze the situation and come out with daily proclamations about what should be done. When you're humble and scientific enough to say, You know, we were saying this a week, a month, two months ago, but now things have really changed, that's taken as flip-flopping, being wrong, and having made a mistake."

So what does a guy who started at his job at 27 do when that ends? One thing Fauci says he won't do is simply chase the most dollars.

"If I was motivated by money, I would have taken the 100 jobs I've been offered for 20 times my salary," Fauci said. "I don't know what that's going to be. It may be hooking up with a university that's willing to make me a senior professor on their faculty. It may be going with a foundation. I can tell you one thing I'm not going to do. I'm not going to sit in my house with a Gmail address."

Fauci said the HIV pandemic early in his career is "what got me being fanatically a workaholic about research on that."

He was given the Presidential Medal Of Freedom by President George W. Bush. He served seven presidents and said they all were different. Fauci said his most impactful relationship was with Bush because Bush made him chief architect of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. PEPFAR has invested $100 billion in more than 50 nations to help prevent and treat HIV infections.

Fauci has had several public clashes with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and he said Paul accusing him during an oversight hearing of being responsible for the deaths of 5 million people was different from when AIDS activists pushed him to listen to them.

"I came into what I thought was a good faith, oversight hearing where politicians ask questions for the purpose of improving the situation, for the purpose of protecting and preserving the health of the country," Fauci said. "When you start off by saying, How do you explain the fact that you are responsible for the death of 5 million people? No way am I going to stand for that on public television, on C-SPAN."

Does Fauci have a motto to live by, some guidance he's told his kids?

"Yeah, it's what I go by. It's called precision of thought and economy of expression. Know what your message is, know your audience, and say it in as few words as possible," Fauci said.