WEBVTT - Bonus: Dr. Fauci answers your questions about COVID, Monkeypox, and more 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.200 Hi, everyone. I'm Katie Kuric, and I'm jumping back into 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:10.880 my next question feed to share an urgent conversation I 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:15.320 had with Dr Anthony Fauci about the latest COVID subvariant 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:20.599 and this other infectious disease outbreak, monkey pox. With more 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:24.720 than seventy thousand cases of monkey pox in nearly seventy countries, 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:29.080 the World Health Organization has declared it a public health emergency. 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:31.560 We're going to get some answers on the state of 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:35.360 monkey pox, but we begin our conversation with Dr Fauci's 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:40.559 recent experience with COVID and how he's feeling now. I 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:43.440 was very fortunate in that, you know, I really had 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:50.080 a minor about with COVID and thankfully, UM, I don't 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:53.920 really appear to have any residual symptoms. You know, it's 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:56.520 kind of interesting when you're running a hundred miles an 0:00:56.560 --> 0:01:01.520 hour to determine whether it's fatigued that you would have anyway, 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:08.839 or it's fatigue following infection. I'm chronically sleep the price symptoms, 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:13.360 you know, it's interesting. UM. I think it was like 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:16.800 on a Wednesday evening, as I was getting ready to 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:19.720 go to bed, I felt like a little scratchiness in 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:23.600 my throat, and I thought it wasn't a sore throat 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:26.240 by any means, And I thought maybe, as you know, 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:29.200 with the heat and the air conditioner and the dry air, 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:34.960 that it was causing some degree of scratchiness. But then 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:37.560 when I woke up in the morning, it was a 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:40.080 little bit more severe. So I thought I didn't feel 0:01:40.080 --> 0:01:42.560 sick Hettie at all. I just said, let let me 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:45.120 take a test, and it took a test and it 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:49.680 came out strongly positive. So I went on pack Slovid 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:54.200 immediately and over the next eighteen now is I developed 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:58.280 a little bit of a sniffle um. I didn't feel great, 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:02.280 a bit mostly fatigued, which is very interesting. Fatigue is 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:05.800 a very important part of this, right. I went on 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:09.800 packs of it and and the symptoms disappeared, like within 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:12.399 eighteen hours. Yeah, but I was one of the ones 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:14.160 that had a bit of a rebound. I was going 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:18.000 to say, so many people are having this rebound where 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:22.880 the symptoms return, you test positive again after testing negative 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:26.360 the event, So why is that happening so much? Well, 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:28.560 you know, we don't know exactly why, but it may 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:33.360 be that when you take packs livid early on which 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:36.560 is the time you're supposed to take it, that you 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:39.480 don't give the body enough of a chance to respond 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:42.680 to the virus immunologically so that when you withdraw the 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:46.440 drug the virus comes back. But the good news about it, 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:48.680 and I think we really should and I hope, well, 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:51.519 I'm glad I'm talking to you about it too. Really, 0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:57.200 UM dissolve confusion about this is that the packs of 0:02:57.280 --> 0:02:59.760 it is doing exactly what you're asking it to do, 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:06.239 asking it to prevent you progressing to severe disease leading 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:12.680 to hospitalization. If you get UM laboratory test rebound for 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:17.679 a day or two and the re symptoms returned almost invariably, 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:23.080 it's very very mild, which means that the drug was 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:26.280 successful in doing what it's supposed to do in a 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:28.760 certain percentage of people. And we still don't know what 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:32.560 percent that is. It really varies. You know, the general 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:37.080 study show two and that other studies show maybe eight percent. 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:40.600 But when you talk to people, it seems that many 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:43.880 people who you speak to are getting this rebound. So 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:47.400 we don't know exactly what it is. But we should 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:52.400 not let that be a reason not to take packs Livid, 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:55.280 because packs Livid will keep you out of the hospital. 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:58.920 Good point. But meanwhile, the latest drain b A five 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:02.320 has per than to be not only more contagious, but 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:06.800 hospitalizations are on the rise. So how concerned are you 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:09.960 about this latest strain? Yeah, we have to be careful 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:15.560 about that, Katie, because I think that's a volume quantitative reason. 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:20.560 Let me explain. So, if you have a certain percentage 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:27.200 of people yet hospitalized, the hospitalized to total case ratio 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:31.680 that could still be very low. But when you get 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:38.080 so many more cases because of the inherent increase in transmissibility, 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:45.080 you will, purely by mathematical calculation, get more hospitalizations. So 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:48.960 even though they're reporting a hundred and twenty to a 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:54.000 hundred and forty thousand new cases per day, it is 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:58.240 very likely, in fact, I'm certain that the actual number 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:01.320 is much higher because us there are so many people 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:06.240 who are home testing. They get a positive test, they 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:10.680 either have minimal symptoms or no symptoms at all, but 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:14.440 they don't report the test to anybody. So the hundred 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:18.120 and thirty hundred and forty thousand might actually be three 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:22.000 or four times that amount. So even though the hospitalizations 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:25.320 are going up, which is not an acceptable thing. We 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:29.000 don't want hospitalizations to go up, and we certainly don't 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:32.360 want deaths to go up. But the thing that's concerning 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:35.840 to me is that the deaths are still hanging around 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:39.200 three to four hundred a day. And if you do 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:41.440 the math on that, you know you're talking over a 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:45.520 hundred thousand deaths per year, which is a very unacceptable 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:48.560 number of deaths. So we've got to get that number 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:54.040 very much lower than that. And you do that, like 0:05:54.279 --> 0:06:00.320 the common common sense public health measures. If you're not vaccinated, 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:04.000 get vaccinated. If you are not up to date on 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:08.440 your boosts, get boosted. If you're in a setting where 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:13.120 you're concerned about whether or not you're infected, even though 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:17.840 you don't have symptoms, tests are widely available and free. 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:22.800 If you do get infected and a test is positive 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:27.000 and you are in a risk category, go on packs 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:31.640 a limit. If you're in an indoor congregate setting and 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:34.279 you go to the computer and click on the CDC 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:37.880 map and you see that the county that you're in 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:41.520 is an orange or a red zone, then when you're 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:46.080 in a congregate indoor setting, wear a mask. You know, 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:50.080 when we're not talking about you know, the radioactive statements 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:54.719 of mask mandates. We're talking about common sense recommendation that 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:59.440 if there's a lot of infection dynamics, it's prudent when 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:03.160 you're in an indoor congregate settings. Where on that are 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:09.359 most of the hospitalizations involving unvaccinated individuals. Yeah, if you 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:16.720 look at the difference between what is the fold increase 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:21.880 in in in hospitalizations and death among people who are 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:26.080 completely unvaccinated versus people who are vaccinated but not up 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:29.720 to date on boosts and people who have vaccinated and 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:33.840 up to date on boots, the difference in hospitalization is 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:39.440 overwhelmingly higher proportionately of people who are unvaccinated. Now, some 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:45.920 vaccinated people who are at high risk either very elderly, frail, 0:07:46.800 --> 0:07:51.640 underlying immune compromise. Those people can, in fact and do 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:55.080 go on to hospitalization and some of them die. But 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:58.600 when you compare on a case by case basis, it's 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:03.160 overwhelming evidence is that unvaccinated people are at a multi 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:08.920 multi full risk more of a getting getting hospitalization and dying. 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:12.160 A lot of my followers are asking, though Dr Fauci 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:16.800 about additional boosters, and they're saying it doesn't seem to 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:20.640 be efficacious. Some of against some of these new strains. 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:25.520 So what is the point. Well, that's a great question, 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:29.080 and that's why we keep and and it's an understandable 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:34.400 source of confusion. But look at the data. What are 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:40.960 we asking the vaccines to do. We're asking predominantly that 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:45.480 they prevent us from getting significantly ill, particularly needing to 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:49.880 go to the hospitalization. Now we're getting people who are 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:55.360 vaccinated and boosted who are getting infected, like me, like 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:59.920 the President of the United States. But what the vaccine 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:04.960 does is really very nicely prevent you from progressing to 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:10.040 severe disease. Now, what we do need and just yesterday 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:13.240 you may have heard, we had a vaccine summit at 0:09:13.240 --> 0:09:17.920 the White House which I talk about what the next 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:22.160 generation of vaccines will look like and what we do 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:26.560 need all vaccines for the future that will give you 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:31.480 a greater breath and durability of infection, as well as 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:35.760 a new form of vaccine that you could administer internasally, 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:40.720 which will protect you more from getting infected as well 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:45.000 as transmitting sort of a pan coronavirus vaccine. I know 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:50.199 you talked about, but that sounds complicated and potentially very difficult. 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:53.160 How realistic is that? And when do you think something 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:57.600 like that might be available. Well, you know the holy 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:01.360 grail of a truly pan corona navirus that means every 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:06.760 type of coronavirus. As I mentioned in my lecture at 0:10:06.800 --> 0:10:12.120 the Vaccine Summit yesterday, you want to take incremental steps 0:10:12.200 --> 0:10:16.000 at a time and start off with a pan saws 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:21.600 Kobe two vaccine that gets all of the different variants 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:25.360 that we've already experienced, as well as any variant of 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:29.320 that particular virus that we might experience in the future, 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:34.200 like this fall or this winter. The next step is 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:37.520 to get a pan sub eco virus, which is that 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:43.520 group of coronaviruses that are clustered around the bad human interface, 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:46.200 so that if we get another jumping of the species 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:49.679 from an animal to a human, we'll be able to 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:53.080 have a vaccine that protects. And then the ultimate holy 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:57.320 grail is to get one that includes all coronavirus is 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:03.000 including the common cold coronavirus. Now that's aspirational. The first 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:07.280 step that I mentioned, I think realistically it's going to 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:12.200 take a couple of years. Really, I think we'd love 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:16.320 to have it five months from now. It's to get 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:20.480 it proven to be safe and effective in a big study. 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:23.880 It's not going to happen in the next few months. 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:27.679 So basically it has become what you said, sort of endemic, 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:30.560 as something we pretty much just have to live with. 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:33.480 And you know, by the way, Dr Fauci, people are 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:37.280 getting this like two or three times. I mean, is 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:40.640 there any limit to the number of times somebody can 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:45.880 actually get this virus? Yeah? Most of the time, when 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:50.880 you get repeated infection with the same or a similar 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:57.720 related coronavirus, you have enough infection immunity built up that 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:02.320 you may get infected, but it is unlikely, not impossible, 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:07.080 but unlikely that you will progress to severe disease. If 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:12.040 you look, Katie at the history of common cold coronavirus, 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:16.520 is you and I throughout our lives every winter would 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:20.240 get infected literally with the same virus we got infected 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:22.920 two years ago or three years ago. I mean not 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:26.000 so much now when you're an adult, but even as 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:31.320 you're a child and you're building up community kids, well, 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:33.160 I know you and I went through the same thing. 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:35.120 I mean, there was a period of time when my 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:37.520 three daughters were growing up, I spent half my time 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:41.720 blowing my nose. Uh. And that's just one of the 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:46.720 things when kids bring home infections. But the encouraging news 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:52.360 about that is that the subsequent infections of the same 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:56.800 virus in almost invariably in medicine, you never say always, 0:12:56.800 --> 0:13:00.200 when you never say never, but almost in very able, 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:03.559 it's going to be a less severe infection. So what 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:07.960 we're trying to do is to get this virus to 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:13.200 a low enough level in society that it doesn't dramatically 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:16.080 perturb the social order. And by the social order, I 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:20.080 mean the economy, going to school, going to work, you know, 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:23.520 worrying and looking over your shoulder that you're gonna inadvertently 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:28.240 infect a person who's you know, compromised, and you'll wind up, 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:31.760 you know, having someone get ill because of your association 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:34.880 with them. We're not at that level yet, Katie, because 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:39.480 I mean, having you know, several hundred thousand infections a day, 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:43.600 having three to four hundred deaths, having forty people in 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:47.880 the hospital is not the endemic level that we should 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:50.760 choose to say we're going to live with it. We've 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:53.719 got to get it much lower, and there are things 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:57.720 that we can do to get there. Unfortunately, given the 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:01.679 fatigue that we have this country from two and a 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:05.319 half years of this, everyone is tired of it. So 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:10.120 it's very difficult. Super imposed upon an anti vax type 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:15.120 feeling among some, super imposed upon the political divisiveness we 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:17.640 have in this country, which you know, and and the 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:22.720 social media misinformation and disinformation, it's very difficult to get 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:28.680 people to adhere to common sense public health measures. After 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:32.040 the break, how concerned should we all be about monkey pops? 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:44.760 Right after this, let's move on, by the way, to 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:48.440 monkey pops. I mean, as of right now at the 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:51.840 end of July, four thousand cases documented here in the 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:56.080 US effect men who have sex with other men. The 0:14:56.360 --> 0:15:00.800 virus was first discovered in So why are we seeing 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:06.360 this now, Well, it's the issue. First of all. Monkey 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:11.720 poks is a virus that is endemic in certain Central 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:18.280 African and West African countries. It almost invariably goes from 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:22.960 an animal jumps to a human and with some exceptions 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:26.120 at least up to now, we're investigating if anything has 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:32.960 changed recently. But in sub Saharan Africa, in Central Africa particularly, 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:37.640 it usually when it gets into the human host, it 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:40.520 is a dead end. It doesn't have a chain of 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:46.680 transmission that is prolonged. What looks like it happened, and 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:50.680 we have to make sure we nail this down epidemiologically. 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:57.440 Is that associated with gay pride, galias and get togethers 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:02.840 that it got inserted. The virus did into a population 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:07.560 where the modality of spread, which is close skin to 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:11.640 skin contact as you would have in an sexual encounter, 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:16.320 not exclusively in the in the sexual encounter, but when 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:20.800 you have multiple sexual partners where you don't know the 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:24.880 status of that person. That is a very easy way 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:30.240 for a virus to spread within a demographic group. So 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:35.960 something happened and it was likely someone who was infected 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:39.440 in an African setting got into a setting of a 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:43.200 sexual network and then you wind up it now having 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:48.680 very much predominantly in menos sex with men. Now, the 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:52.840 the issue we face, that's a sensitive issue there is 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:55.840 that we want to make sure that we need to do, 0:16:56.280 --> 0:17:00.960 you know, four pillars on this. We very unlike the 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:05.440 way things were in the early years of HIV when 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:07.720 we didn't know what the agent was, We didn't have 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:12.200 a diagnostic, we didn't have a therapy, and we still 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:15.320 in fact don't have a vaccine. We were like swimming 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:19.679 in the dark. Right now, we have a vaccine, we 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:24.680 have testing, and we have therapeutics and we've got to 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:29.879 reach out into the community to alert both the community 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:33.800 and the physicians and healthcare providers that take care of 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:37.520 them that we have a problem now that's spreading. So 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:41.320 since we have knowledge of the ideologic agent and we 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:45.360 have interventions, the real challenge is to get in an 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:50.879 expeditious manner those interventions to the people that need them. 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:53.880 We started off with very few tests, six thousand a week. 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:56.800 We now have eighty thousand a week. We know, we 0:17:56.880 --> 0:17:59.560 know we have a vaccine that works. We've got to 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:02.760 get it, you know, from where it was stockpiled into 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:07.640 the market. Yeah, and and get it distributed. And right 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:10.840 now things are looking much much better. You know, we 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:14.040 have three hundred and some a thousand already distributed. We're 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:18.040 gonna have another four hundred thousand distributed very soon, and 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:21.560 then we have another additional eight hundred thousand that we're 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:24.080 gonna be able to get out. We hope, and I 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:27.360 think we will do that expeditiously. And we also got 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:29.919 to cut down and we are doing that. The CDC 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:34.439 and the FDA are doing that now. Cut down the 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:38.680 paperwork and the logistics um hoops that you have to 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:43.240 run through to a therapy into someone, right, because according 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:47.840 to the CDC, people are expected to survive monkey pops. 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:52.080 But but you've said you're worried about children and pregnant 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:57.840 women in particular. Why is that Because historically, if you 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:02.040 look at what monkey Pops has done in Africa and 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:06.399 what monkey pox is capable of doing, the susceptible people 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:11.879 are those who are immune compromised. Young children and pregnant 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:16.040 women have a greater likelihood of getting a more severe 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:20.639 outcome if they get infected. That's what I was referring to. 0:19:21.280 --> 0:19:23.520 So a lot of people wanted me to ask you, 0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:28.720 Dr Fauci, if monkey pox can be transmitted via airborne exposure, 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:32.000 how likely is that? And while we're on the subject, 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:36.159 if I am in the company of someone who was 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:42.800 diagnosed with monkey pox, what are my next steps? Yeah? Well, 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:46.040 first of all, you've got to make sure that there's 0:19:46.080 --> 0:19:51.000 no misunderstanding. On the one hand, balancing not panicking people 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:54.439 and on the other hand, being realistic about what we know. 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:58.879 So right now we are studying the CDC together with 0:19:58.960 --> 0:20:03.080 the nih IS the natural history of this virus. We 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:06.800 generally know how it acts and acted in Southern Africa, 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:09.640 but we want to make sure we understand that there's 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:14.480 nothing different about this and thus far, thus far, it 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:21.760 looks like virtually all of the epidemiological of detective work 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:26.600 that has been done indicates that it requires close skin 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:31.160 to skin contact with someone who has lesions of the 0:20:31.240 --> 0:20:35.320 monkey pocks. There's very little, if any, in fact, no 0:20:35.520 --> 0:20:39.240 data to indicate even though we keep an open mind 0:20:39.440 --> 0:20:41.879 that it is spread by any other way. We do 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:46.040 know from experience with smallpox and monkey pox that it 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:51.520 can be spread through contaminated clothing or or other fomites 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:57.560 call it inanimate objects. So right now, if when you 0:20:57.600 --> 0:21:00.399 say if you get exposed to someone with it, I 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:03.080 mean if you're a healthcare provider, you know that's the 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:06.000 reason why we want to vaccinate the healthcare providers, because 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:08.800 they are exposed to people who come into an emergency room. 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:11.800 Where people who come into a situation. Should you want 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:15.920 to isolate a person while they're shedding virus. But the 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:17.760 thing we have to be careful of, and that's the 0:21:17.800 --> 0:21:20.800 reason why we want to get a lot of reaching 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:25.960 out into the community, is that not everybody is fully aware. 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:28.879 I mean, few have a very painful lesion that spread 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:31.840 all over you. It's very clear that you have monkey pocks, 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:34.960 but in some cases it may not be so clear. 0:21:35.000 --> 0:21:37.120 So you want to educate the community of what they 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:40.520 need to look out for. But I would not want 0:21:40.560 --> 0:21:43.960 to say that people need to worry about being near somebody, 0:21:44.000 --> 0:21:47.560 because then you get stigma, and stigma is the enemy 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:50.720 of public health. So we shouldn't be saying, well, now 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:55.200 the entire population is at high risk. It's not. We're 0:21:55.200 --> 0:21:57.720 going to keep an eye on what we call the 0:21:57.840 --> 0:22:00.880 natural history and the evolution of this. This is mostly 0:22:00.920 --> 0:22:04.320 a CDC issue. The n i H will continue to 0:22:04.320 --> 0:22:09.159 do research with clinical trials to talk about vaccines and 0:22:09.200 --> 0:22:11.960 therapies and things like that, but it's going to be 0:22:12.040 --> 0:22:15.679 mostly trying to track the natural history of this, and 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:18.119 the more we track of it, the more knowledge will have, 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:21.720 and the more knowledge will have, the more concrete recommendations 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:23.800 can be made. And of course we have to have 0:22:23.920 --> 0:22:29.240 a public health conversation without stigmatizing and ostracizing gay men, 0:22:29.240 --> 0:22:32.719 which of course happened during the AIDS. Academic, what are 0:22:32.760 --> 0:22:38.800 your biggest concerns about where this outbreak is going? Dr Fauci, Well, 0:22:38.880 --> 0:22:42.920 I think that really the concern is that you may 0:22:43.000 --> 0:22:49.240 have a situation where it becomes much more um aggressively 0:22:49.320 --> 0:22:54.920 spreading within the population at risk, as well as any 0:22:55.000 --> 0:23:00.080 spillover infections, namely from a person who is infect it 0:23:00.680 --> 0:23:04.040 who inadvertently would infect someone else, which is the reason 0:23:04.119 --> 0:23:06.960 why you've got to have an all hands on deck 0:23:07.080 --> 0:23:11.680 approach to alertness, reaching out into the community and making 0:23:11.960 --> 0:23:17.440 available testing, vaccination, and therapy. You just hope COVID fatigue 0:23:17.520 --> 0:23:22.239 won't prevent people from taking this seriously. Well, you know, 0:23:23.200 --> 0:23:25.480 we've often heard and I've heard, oh my god, we've 0:23:25.480 --> 0:23:27.119 had COVID for two and a half years and now 0:23:27.119 --> 0:23:30.120 we have monkeypox. It's a reality. We've got to deal 0:23:30.160 --> 0:23:32.600 with it. We just have to deal with it, and 0:23:32.600 --> 0:23:35.320 and that's it. We can't wish it away. We've got 0:23:35.320 --> 0:23:37.720 to address it and deal with it. And that's the 0:23:37.720 --> 0:23:40.640 reason why, as I mentioned a moment ago, we've got 0:23:40.640 --> 0:23:43.600 to get the interventions to the people who need them 0:23:43.600 --> 0:23:47.520 in a very expeditious manner. And we've got to make 0:23:47.520 --> 0:23:52.560 sure that we don't stigmatize a segment of our population, because, 0:23:52.600 --> 0:23:55.640 as I've said, way back from the from the early 0:23:55.720 --> 0:23:58.560 years of HIV and now the enemy here is the 0:23:58.640 --> 0:24:02.560 virus that's all pulled together to fight the virus and 0:24:02.640 --> 0:24:06.480 not the pointing fingers or anything like that. Meanwhile, Rampaul 0:24:06.600 --> 0:24:09.280 has been such a thorn in your side. Dr Fauci 0:24:09.359 --> 0:24:13.280 asking questions about gaining a function research the Chinese lab 0:24:13.359 --> 0:24:17.360 and Wuhan threatening to launch a probe. What is your 0:24:17.400 --> 0:24:21.760 response to that, you know, I I don't really have 0:24:21.840 --> 0:24:25.800 any response to that, Katie. I mean a couple of 0:24:25.840 --> 0:24:31.879 papers have come out now in Science magazine from thirty 0:24:31.920 --> 0:24:36.240 investigators from twenty countries that have really shown a lot 0:24:36.320 --> 0:24:39.800 of a lot of very clear scientific data about the 0:24:39.880 --> 0:24:43.199 evolution and the origin of this. So, you know, we 0:24:43.280 --> 0:24:46.280 always keep an open mind. But you know, you could 0:24:46.359 --> 0:24:52.359 continue to pursue and and and tweet conspiracy theories. But 0:24:52.520 --> 0:24:56.880 let's look at the science um with regard to what 0:24:57.000 --> 0:24:59.359 he's going to investigate. I mean, we're an open book. 0:24:59.720 --> 0:25:02.600 I'm we have been all along. So there's nothing that 0:25:02.920 --> 0:25:06.440 the scientific community in the United States has to hide 0:25:06.440 --> 0:25:11.359 at all, that's for sure. After the break, is Dr 0:25:11.440 --> 0:25:15.320 Fauci really retiring, We'll have some answers right after this. 0:25:25.000 --> 0:25:27.440 You've announced your stepping down at the end of President 0:25:27.520 --> 0:25:31.560 Biden's first term. Gosh, what a career you've had. Dr 0:25:31.640 --> 0:25:35.080 fauci in public service. When you think back at all 0:25:35.080 --> 0:25:40.360 the challenges you've faced and everything that you've accomplished, what 0:25:40.400 --> 0:25:43.520 are you proudest of? Right? Well, first of all, let 0:25:43.560 --> 0:25:48.040 me make a correction, Katie and you, being a journalist 0:25:48.080 --> 0:25:53.960 as it were, no this could happen Politico. Yes, no, no, no, 0:25:54.840 --> 0:25:59.840 it's a misperception, and I'll clarify it for you. Political 0:26:00.080 --> 0:26:03.520 asked me, I think it was George Stefanopolis a long 0:26:03.560 --> 0:26:05.600 time ago, and said, you know you you've been there 0:26:05.720 --> 0:26:08.360 this a long time. You know when do you think 0:26:08.400 --> 0:26:12.240 you'll you'll you'll step down? And said, Jesus George, I 0:26:12.280 --> 0:26:14.320 don't know. I'm just working very hard at it. Then 0:26:14.400 --> 0:26:17.840 someone asked me after that, because the idea of my 0:26:17.920 --> 0:26:23.560 stepping down came up. They said, if Donald Trump became 0:26:23.600 --> 0:26:29.119 president in January, would you serve under him? And I said, 0:26:29.200 --> 0:26:33.679 very honestly and innociently, whether Donald Trump or another Republican 0:26:33.720 --> 0:26:37.520 becomes president or Joe Biden gets a second term, I 0:26:37.600 --> 0:26:43.000 do not plan to be in this job by January. 0:26:43.680 --> 0:26:50.280 That headline was I'm staying at the job until January. 0:26:50.600 --> 0:26:53.679 That's not the case. I said, I will not be 0:26:53.760 --> 0:26:57.600 at the job on January, which means I will retire 0:26:57.880 --> 0:27:03.439 from federal service anyway between now and then, and I 0:27:03.520 --> 0:27:07.119 haven't made up my mind when that's gonna be. And 0:27:07.200 --> 0:27:12.080 one little footnote to that, what I jokingly but seriously 0:27:12.240 --> 0:27:17.080 object to is the word retired, because when I stepped 0:27:17.080 --> 0:27:21.679 down from federal service, I will continue to do in 0:27:21.720 --> 0:27:25.240 a different venue the things that you were asking me 0:27:25.320 --> 0:27:29.720 about in my career. What do I feel the proudest of, Well, 0:27:29.920 --> 0:27:33.399 certainly there are there are things that that I I 0:27:33.520 --> 0:27:37.080 naturally feel proud of. Is that my fifty four years 0:27:37.720 --> 0:27:41.160 at the n i H, my you know, curing earlier 0:27:41.359 --> 0:27:47.520 before AIDS diseases that we're rare, but we're quite deadly 0:27:47.640 --> 0:27:53.480 certain inflammatory diseases, establishing the AIDS program at the ni H, 0:27:53.720 --> 0:27:57.080 being an important part of the development of therapies that 0:27:57.119 --> 0:28:01.439