Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, spoke in Sarasota on Monday about the dangers of slashing budgets in the nation's health agencies and urged young people interested in public health to pursue their dreams.
Uniformed police lined the bayfront and dozens of Sarasota police cars, a mobile unit and an ambulance parked outside the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, where Fauci spoke at 10:30 a.m. and again at 7:30 p.m. to packed houses in the 1,700-seat theater.
A police officer said there were protesters outside before Fauci's talk Monday morning, but by evening, just one man was seen holding a sign that read "Jesus Saves."
According to media reports, about 100 protesters with signs were outside the venue during Fauci's early appearance, and an anti-Fauci "Freedom Fest" at nearby Selby Five Points Park featured Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo among the speakers.
The 84-year-old Fauci, who served as President Joe Biden's medical adviser and as one of the nation's leading experts on fighting infectious disease for more than five decades, has received death threats and become the target of criticism by some for his advocacy of closing down schools and businesses in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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"Expect the unexpected," Fauci told the audience, as he recounted the highs and lows and what he learned during his career in public service.
During his talk, part of the Ringling College Town Hall series, Fauci described decades of working for presidents of both parties and helping treat patients during the AIDS epidemic.
He also talked about being in the uncomfortable position of having to contradict President Donald Trump, when he said COVID would disappear like magic and advocated unproven COVID treatments like hydroxychloroquine.
Fauci said, looking back, people tend to forget that the decision to close schools and businesses early in the pandemic came at a time when thousands of people were dying every day and refrigerator trucks were parked outside hospitals because morgues were overflowing.
"The beauty of science is that science is self-correcting," he said, acknowledging that different decisions might be made now about how long such closures should have lasted and that some states reopened at a different pace than others.
He also lamented how quickly falsehoods can spread on social media, and somehow get repeated over and over until people begin to believe they are true.
Rebuilding trust in science can come by sticking to facts, he said, describing the spread of misinformation about vaccines as the "normalization of untruths," which has led to a "real disruption in society," he said.
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Fauci retired in 2022 and wrote a book. His wife was among those laid off at the National Institutes of Health this month due to steep budget cuts to government health and foreign aid agencies.
Fauci said those cuts mean people around the world who were helped by U.S.-funded public health programs will lose their lives.
But during his discussion on stage with former "Good Morning America" host Joan Lunden, Fauci said he doesn't want young people to lose hope in public health.
"Don't be discouraged with all that's going on right now," he recounted telling some students considering medical careers.
"This, too, shall pass."
