Dr. Fauci, the US's top infectious disease expert shared a day in his life, and it's exhausting just reading it

Director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci puts on a Washington Nationals face mask when he arrives to testify before the House Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, June 23, 2020.

Kevin Dietsch/Pool via REUTERS

• In an interview with HuffPost, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US's leading infectious disease expert, laid out a schedule of one of his workdays while working to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Dr. Fauci, who still fits patient visits into his day, and is escorted by a team of federal agents due to threats to his safety, mentioned one scheduled 20 minute break within the particular 18-hour workday.
• That day largely revolved around press appearances and emails when he is not working in person.
• "I don't socialize. It's my wife and I and the federal agents. We've sort of become like a new family unit," Dr. Fauci told HuffPost.
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As the COVID-19 pandemic surges, the US' top infectious disease expert and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, Dr. Anthony Fauci, is seemingly, virtually, everywhere at once.

In an interview with HuffPost, conducted the day before Thanksgiving, Dr. Fauci, who turns 80 next week, broke down his 18-hour schedule for that particular day. He told HuffPost's Jeffrey Young, who tweeted out a transcript of Fauci's full answer to his question, that every day is different, and, "It's just, you know, drinking out of a firehose trying to keep ahead of everything that's going on."

• 5:10 a.m. to 6 a.m.: Dr. Fauci had a shower and a shave.
• 6 a.m. to 6:30 a.m.: Dr. Fauci checked emails. He described receiving over 1,000 emails, which are whittled down to hundreds of critical ones he must address throughout the day.
• 6:30 a.m. to 7 a.m.: Dr. Fauci taped a segment for ABC News' "Good Morning America."
• 7 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.: Dr. Fauci left his home, with his crew of federal agents for protection, to head to the National Institutes of Health.
• 7:30 a.m. to 8 a.m.: Dr. Fauci appeared on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal."
• 8 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.: Dr. Fauci called in to WNYC-FM's "The Takeaway." 
• 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.: Dr. Fauci taped an interview with a local Chicago TV station.
• 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.: Still making time for patients, Fauci checked up on two severe COVID-19 patients at the NIH Clinical Center alongside their primary physicians.
• 10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.: Dr. Fauci took part in a videoconference with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases staff.
• 10:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.: Interview with a newspaper reporter.
• 11:00 a.m. to 11:50 a.m.: Video meeting with HHS Secretary Alex Azar, NIH Director Francis Collins, CDC Director Robert Redfield, FDA Administrator Stephen Hahn, and others.
• 11:50 a.m. to 12 p.m.: A "10-12 min" bathroom break and emails.
• 12 p.m. to 12:30 p.m.: Interviewed with theGrio about vaccine skepticism in the Black community.
• 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m.: HuffPost's interview.
• 1 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.: More TV appearances.
• 1:30 p.m. to 1:50 p.m.: The first scheduled break of the day.
• 1:50 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.: A newspaper interview.
• 2:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.: An interview with a scientific journal.
• 3 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.: Dr. Fauci said he spent this time preparing "for an upcoming speech to the Centers for Science and International something-or-other, one of those think tanks in Washington."
• 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.: Videoconference with doctors from the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
• 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.: Videoconference with NIH vaccine scientists, including Moderna and other producers.
• 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.: Phone calls, emails, and more press.

After his arduous schedule, Fauci said he hoped to be home after 7 p.m., where he would finish off the day doing his 45-minute power walk with his wife, Christine Grady, the chief of the Department of Bioethics at the NIH's Clinical Center.

After dinner, he would do more press and check more emails until he said he is "so tired I can't do anymore."

In his interview with HuffPost, Fauci also mentioned that due to COVID-19 and threats made against his life (including a disturbing comment by former Trump White House advisor Steve Bannon), he does not socialize and did not hold any Thanksgiving gatherings with his children. 

"I have federal agents that protect me. So they drive me to work, they stay here, they make sure that nobody tries to break in [to my home] and, as Steve Bannon would like, have somebody behead me," Fauci told HuffPost. "I don't socialize. It's my wife and I and the federal agents. We've sort of become like a new family unit."

As potential vaccines become accessible to the mass public and until the pandemic seriously subsides in the US, Dr. Fauci is expecting to be extremely busy, especially as President-elect Biden said today that he plans to keep Dr. Fauci in his current position, as well as a chief medical advisor, when he takes office.  

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