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Fauci Addresses National Press Club
Anthony Fauci, M.D., has more than 1,000 scientific articles to his credit, but he is best known as director of the National Institute on Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a federal spokesman on AIDS and anthrax. He may be tapped to be the next director of the NIH. So when he speaks, people listen.
At a recent appearance before the National Press Club, Dr. Fauci said that while the possibility of a bioterrorism attack of smallpox is "extremely realistic," he does not favor vaccinating the entire population because of the toxicities associated with the current form of the vaccine. However, he called for an open public debate about this and all other issues associated with bioterrorism.
Dr. Fauci suggested that the nation's fear about bioterrorism is rooted not in the actual risk to individuals but the public's inability to control that risk. Moreover, "It's the public's inexperience with not having the answer to things that they feel scientists should give them a definite answer about."
Addressing the topic of a bioterrorism research agenda, Dr. Fauci noted that it "has to do something that is unusual for the broad undifferentiated component of research" -- start with basic research on pathogenesis and host response, then direct the knowledge gained toward the development of a product, which could be diagnostic, therapeutic or immunological.
When asked about the future of AIDS prevention, Dr. Fauci observed that an effective vaccine against HIV will be "very difficult, if not impossible." Therefore, he noted, "behavior modification is still the best major weapon against the spread of HIV/AIDS."
Dr. Fauci's response to questions about his possible future as NIH director was a short and simple "no comment."
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