I’ve been involved in engineering & applied science research for 40 years. So now that we’ve waved our credentials at each other.
I find it surprising you don’t remember any of his AIDS pronouncements! I’ve had the distasteful experience of being involved in investigating R&D fraud. In fact, I built up a reputation at being rather good at rooting it out. There are certain R&D ‘behaviors\procedures’ that cross knowledge domains. If something ‘funny’ occurs in those behaviors\etc’, digging a little deep is required. I never liked that work.
Fauci triggered suspicions in my head the first time I heard him at a press conference. Even not being an expert in virology I found his statements back then excessive. It was clear to me he was exaggerating. Why? Likely to keep funding coming in! As long as the public perceived AIDS as a niche disease effecting a specific ‘not popular’ community it was going to be hard to keep it funded at the level he wanted. Those suspicions were confirmed accidently when at a AAAS meeting in DC I was introduced to NIH virologist who was friend of a NIH employee rugby buddy. This was the 1980s and AIDS was the talk of the town and those rascally Republicans meaning Reagan didn’t care! This NIH person was extremely irritated with Fauci because he was doing that - exaggerating to boost his work. At the time not my circus not my monkeys, I was just happy my ‘BS radar’ pinged true. I just thought to myself the ‘BS radar’ ping would be handy the next time I was pulled in to do another R&D fraud review.
I think we now know that all those exaggerations about AIDS were politically motivated and done to keep the funding going.
My wife just thinks I’m morbidly suspicious of people!
Foci was responsible for the name change from :
GRID - gay related immune deficiency
to AIDs
I think you are right. Suspicious is good. I’m a radiologist AIDS really wasn’t anything I followed. In the 80”s I was finishing residency and working at a trauma center in Camden. I can’t remember an AIDS case, except once I needed to wear gloves to do a CT injection.
Lots of cancer, trauma, orthopedics, no time on plain films,