Newly released diary entries reveal that as COVID-19 deaths mounted around the world, former White House COVID advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci became increasingly fixated on his newfound celebrity.
Released by Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., the journals chronicle Fauci’s day-to-day role during the COVID-19 crisis through conversations with President Donald Trump, governors and world leaders, media appearances, and his personal observations as the pandemic unfolded.
Paul, a longtime Fauci critic who frequently clashed with Fauci over the federal response and the origins of the virus, made the diaries public as part of the committee’s ongoing oversight investigation. The release comes days before Fauci is scheduled to testify before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee after being subpoenaed by Paul.
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A surprising recurring theme throughout the diaries is Fauci’s growing awareness of his own public profile during the most intense months of the pandemic, which ultimately claimed more than 7 million officially reported lives worldwide, including roughly 1.2 million in the United States.
On April 7, 2020, after recording the latest pandemic developments, Fauci wrote: “Press still hot and heavy about me. Multiple stories per day directly or indirectly involving me.”
By May 21, after recording the latest pandemic figures — nearly 98,000 global deaths and more than 27,000 U.S. deaths — and documenting the day’s White House coronavirus task force meetings, Fauci wrote that his “national and international fame is explosive and really unimaginable” and that it was “not hyperbole” to say he was “the most famous and talked about person in the country.”
He added that Trump “seems to be enamored of me even though I am taking the spotlight away from him,” writing that the two were developing “a very unique and interesting relationship.” Fauci also noted that Secret Service agents had become so familiar with him they often waved him through White House security without checking his identification.
As the attention continued to grow, the diary increasingly documented how Fauci’s prominence had expanded beyond public health. A month later, as the United States recorded what Fauci described as a record 40,000 new COVID-19 cases in a single day, he wrote that he had been invited to appear on “Dancing with the Stars.”
The diaries also document Fauci’s growing frustration with the Trump White House. On July 2, 2020, after warning that the country could be entering an “exponential” increase in COVID-19 cases heading into the Fourth of July weekend, Fauci wrote, “POTUS and his people have essentially dropped out and do not even recognize that an outbreak is ongoing.”
He also complained that the White House was denying requests for him to appear on major television programs. Across multiple entries, Fauci criticized White House communications officials for restricting his television appearances, questioned the administration’s public messaging and expressed frustration that media coverage increasingly portrayed him as being at odds with Trump.
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Fauci also repeatedly defended himself against what he described as the “countless” profiles written about him. He wrote that White House officials were upset because the coverage made it appear he was becoming “a star that outshines” the president.
He also insisted several of the profiles had been written without interviewing him and wrote that he had “no desire to conflict with, embarrass or show up the POTUS,” later deciding to stop participating in profile interviews altogether.
Taken together, the entries offer an unusually personal account of Fauci’s role during one of the most consequential public health crises in modern U.S. history, capturing not only the government’s internal deliberations but also his private concerns about the pandemic, his increasingly complicated relationship with the Trump White House and the extraordinary public attention that followed.
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