The Doctor and His Diary: What Fauci’s Innermost Musings Reveal

The New England Journal of Medicine this was not.

When Dr. Anthony S. Fauci’s pandemic diary was made public over the weekend by his Republican nemeses, it provided a rare, unfiltered look at the private thoughts of one of the most polarizing public officials in America as he led the nation through crisis. A typical entry is one dated May 21, 2020. It begins by noting the global death toll from the pandemic (234,100) and continues, typos intact, this way:

“Big front page article abut me appeared in the Washington Post. Very flattering. The situation with my national and international fame is explosive and really unimaginable. It is not hyoperbole to say that today I am the most famous and talked about person in the country and one of the most recognizable peson in the world.”

More than 1,100 pages long and dating from 2019 to 2022, Dr. Fauci’s diary reads like a black comedy of manners in which a 79-year-old social-climbing scientist becomes the face of the government’s response to a pandemic and then the toast of the town — the toast of this town. As the death toll rises, so too does the doctor’s status and self-regard. He falls in with a fast crowd and becomes consumed by his own image.

It’s like Thackeray’s Vanity Fair crossed with The Plague by Camus.

In entry after entry, he chronicles his glittering years on the Washington party circuit. He sips champagne at galas thrown in his honor and gets mobbed for selfies at sceney joints like Cafe Milano. Barbra Streisand calls and calls. Julia Roberts sends flowers. Billy Crystal, Elton John, Brad Pitt and Robert DeNiro are mentioned.

Back then — has it really been six years? — Dr. Fauci became an overnight celebrity when the pandemic struck and the nation looked to someone who could provide answers. It was a terrifying time and in this most credentialed doctor, who had served many presidents and valiantly battled the AIDS crisis, lots of Americans found a foil to President Trump, who was at the time suggesting people play around with bleach. The doctor worked around the clock, appearing anywhere he could to spread the message about slowing the spread and getting the shot.

But there were other Americans who became disillusioned with Dr. Fauci, his methods, his advice and his media ubiquity. To anyone who blamed him for school closures, lockdowns, vaccine mandates they disagreed with and more, the diary entries have come as vindication of the suspicions they held about the character of this man they fault. He was having fun.