Hurrah for Anthony Fauci, who was attacked today by the ‘free-thinking’ police

Anthony Fauci, an immunologist, is the ‘doctor’s doctor’, and a heroic figure worthy of a Nobel Prize, just as our esteemed Locatelli was during the pandemic. His Italian features – his maternal grandmother hailed from Atripalda, the small southern hometown of Sabino Cassese – form a portrait that inspires trust and warmth; he possesses an air of ironic good-naturedness that is appealing, and his famous life spent in the service of others is reflected therein without a trace of arrogance. For decades, starting in the 1980s under Reagan, as a leading medical adviser to those in power on infectious diseases – a field in which he is a world-renowned expert – he tackled the Covid infection as best he could and knew how, with wisdom, and with confidence in vaccines, keeping the regrettable first Trump at bay (the second is the tragic farce that replicates the farcical tragedy of yesteryear) when he suggested drinking a sort of bleach – hydroxychloroquine – to cure himself; a drug effective for rheumatoid arthritis but powerless against Covid-19 infection. For years, Fauci was Trump’s guardian, the one who limited the damage caused by the hysterical anti-vaccine campaigns as best he could, as he ought to, and as he knew how. In short, a benefactor of humanity, as was later evident from the outcome of the pandemic, someone who sought to avert the worst damage caused by the rampant infectious fever. He conducted himself with elegance, calm, a touch of understanding, and political and institutional balance, without overstepping the mark or straying from his duties and his crucial role.

Libertarian Senator Rand Paul, a man who indulges in his own notion of freedom in the court of Trump and Kennedy Jr. – another unsavoury character – would like to send Fauci to prison, which is possible in a country where governors, politicians and vaccination experts have been the targets of assassination attempts and kidnappings. He accuses them of failing to answer the Senate, which was questioning him – even about the colour of the tie he was wearing – in accordance with the US Fifth Amendment, which protects citizens from self-incrimination and allows them to remain silent when questioned, because investigators are required to find the evidence and you are under no obligation to assist them. Libertarians can be like the late Aldo Canovari, founder of Liberilibri: unyielding yet gentle and open to dialogue, though never submissive. Or they can be ‘policemen of free thought’, dragged into the shadows by a dogmatic instinct. Rand Paul, chairman of the Senate committee that wanted Fauci’s head, falls into this second category. He won’t get his head, because the very Italian American hero has mocked him with silence, and to convict him of contempt requires 60 votes, which Paul and the Republicans do not have. Biden also granted Fauci broad presidential immunity when he left the White House, restoring the institution of pardon – which Trump later used to protect and reward the attackers who stormed the Capitol on 6 January 2021 on his orders. When the AIDS epidemic broke out, LGBTQ activist Larry Kramer called Fauci incompetent and an idiot. He later regretted it and became his friend.

Fortunately, the world is full of Fauci’s friends. It’s rare to find someone who tries to give you a hand when you need it. Knowing how to recognise this is a virtue. Montaigne had it in for doctors – who are certainly not omnipotent – in an era when people lived, on average, short and miserable lives. Given his marvellous sceptical mindset, and his intellectual and moral integrity, this is understandable. We must be more modest, take a more low-key approach. Safeguarding the right to be special people, impeccable in their humanitarian actions – the genuine kind – is in the interests of each and every one of us. Long live Anthony Fauci, with his smile and his flaws.