NEW YORK – Dr. Anthony Fauci has a memoir coming out in June, a look back at his long career as an infectious disease expert and the many outbreaks he contended with, from HIV/AIDS to the COVID-19 pandemic that made him famous.
Viking announced Thursday that Fauci's “On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service” will be published in June 18.
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“I hope that this memoir will serve as a personalized document for the reader to understand better the daunting challenges that we have faced in public health over the past 40 years," Fauci said in a statement released Thursday by Viking. "I would also like to inspire younger individuals in particular to consider careers in public health and public service.”
Fauci, 83, was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health for nearly 40 years, and was President Joe Biden's chief medical advisor until his retirement, in 2022. Fauci served under seven presidents, starting with Ronald Reagan, but he is best known for his time during Donald Trump's administration, when he and the White House often clashed over how to respond to the coronavirus.
Millions regarded Fauci, with his raspy voice and plainspoken style, as the government's trusted point man during the heights of the pandemic. But he would become increasingly estranged from Trump, who favored a faster return to normal life and advocated unproven treatments. Republicans and anti-vaxxers have since criticized him relentlessly on a wide range of issues and have written books attacking him, including Sen. Rand Paul's “Deception: The Great Covid Cover-Up” and Robert F. Kennedy Jr's “The Real Anthony Fauci.”
Fauci had been involved in controversy before. In the 1980s, the activist group ACT UP condemned Fauci for what it called his indifferent response to the spread of AIDS. But he would win over many of his critics, meeting with ACT UP members and agreeing to such requests as letting people with HIV serve on research committees and accelerating the process of finding treatments.
During President George W. Bush's administration, Fauci helped develop PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. In 2008, Bush awarded Fauci the Presidential Medal of Freedom for “his efforts to advance the understanding and treatment of HIV/AIDS.”
Financial terms for Fauci's memoir were not disclosed. He was represented by Washington attorney Robert Barnett, whose clients have included Bush, and former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.