Oct 6, 2020 - Politics & Policy

"Be on the right side of truth": Fauci's advice to young people

Mike Allen

Axios' Margaret Talev interviewed Dr. Anthony Fauci yesterday during a Partnership for Public Service Zoom ceremony awarding him the top honor of the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals.

Fauci had this advice to doctors, scientists or aides in government who may be under pressure to give upbeat or politically helpful assessments: "Whenever you walk into the White House, or to a congressional chamber, tell yourself that 'this might be the last time that I'm walking into that place ... I might have to say something that's going to get people to not like what they're hearing, and might have them not ask me back.'"

"So, would I rather be on the right side of the truth, or would I like to be asked back because I told somebody something that they wanted to hear?"
"Over many years now — through Reagan, through George H.W. Bush, through Clinton, through George W. Bush, through Obama and now even through President Trump — I have had to, more often than you would think, tell people things that they did not want to hear. And I'm still here."

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"Be on the right side of truth": Fauci's advice to young people

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