There is an old saying that “a leopard can’t change its spots.” And when it’s applied to human behavior, the phrase refers to how a person rarely changes their basic nature and personality. This phrase reminded me of Dr. Anthony Fauci who is back in the news for his starring role in the Covid pandemic. For some people, his leading role in the AIDS epidemic will come as new information and surprising. For those of us who were working in healthcare at the time, following is a reminder of how devastating Anthony Fauci’s decisions were.
Scientists traced the appearance of the main AIDS strain to southeastern Cameroon around 1920. In June 1981, theU.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) published an article that described cases of a rare lung infection, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), in five young, previously healthy gay men in Los Angeles. All the men had other unusual infections as well, indicating that their immune systems were compromised. Two men died by the time the report was published, and the others would die soon after. This marked the first official reporting of what would later become known as the AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) epidemic.
In that same month, the CDC reported a cluster of cases of a rare and unusually aggressive cancer—Kaposi’s Sarcoma (KS)—among gay men in New York and California. Within days, the CDC received reports from around the nation of similar cases of PCP, KS, and other opportunistic infections among gay men.
Dr. Anthony Fauci became a household name during the AIDS crisis of the ‘80s and ‘90s.
In his role as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Anthony Fauci, during a TV appearance, spread fear among family members and the public over how AIDS could be contracted. Fauci authored an article in JAMA and then went on ABC news to say that anyone could get AIDS—anyone. “If a child is in close family contact,” said Fauci, “perhaps there will be a certain number of cases of those who are near to someone with AIDS, or at risk of AIDS.” Many parents missed the word perhaps, causing them to shun gay men in their families. The public was afraid of getting AIDS from public toilet seats or sitting near a gay person on a bus. And despite backtracking his TV pronouncement later, the public still believed him.
- Anthony Fauci joined hands and fortunes with Burroughs-Wellcome to develop a single drug – AZT.
- Burroughs-Wellcome stock soared with an AZT price tag of $8,000 per patient, per year. Fauci insisted that only AZT, an abandoned cancer drug, could treat AIDS and later HIV. As a result, gay men searched for lower risk, promising drugs, which created the famous “buyers’ clubs.”
- Trials of AZT were quietly discarded due to the deaths of participants. Long-term side effects of AZT were hidden, including bone-marrow suppression, anemia, tremors, and loss of mental acuity. Actual data, while promised, was never released.
- Fauci blocked access to the antibiotic Bactrim even though it was the most effective treatment for the pneumocystis carinii pneumonia that was killing many AIDS patients. That decision cost over 30,000 lives.
- Fauci solicited and received support for his contentions from the mainstream press and media.
AIDS patients understandably put pressure on doctors to prescribe AZT due to the claims made for its effectiveness. The gay community held symbolic “die-ins” at the FDA headquarters demanding quick approval of new drugs.
A “die-in” in front of the FDA Headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland
Only the most fearless physicians, virologists, and researchers spoke out against the dominance of a growing pharmaceutical industry; the power of U.S. agencies led by Fauci and his carefully selected staff; and the role of the World Health Organization. By 2024, WHO funding by the Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation had grown to over 80% of the total amount donated by philanthropic foundations. Some critics, aware of the advantage these “health” entities had over vulnerable populations, called it “Hobson’s Choice”— there was really only one choice on offer—participate or else.
In 1994, the U.S. began testing AZT treatments in Africa funded by the Centers for Disease Control, WHO, and the Gates Foundation in partnership with Anthony Fauci and the NIAID. Over 17,000 HIV-positive African women were tested for a medication to prevent mother-to-child transmission. The subjects did not fully understand the possible dangers and after devastating results, the testing ended in 1998. As concerns grew over the amount of drug testing that was taking place in several African countries, two books were published that described treating human beings like lab rats for financial gain or to maintain research funding.
The 2001 novel, The Constant Gardener by British author John le Carré, was based on clinical trials conducted in Kano, Nigeria. In 2007, the award-winning book, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans included the testing of all manner of drugs and vaccines in the U.S. as well as in Africa.
The most immoral and medically unethical project of Anthony Fauci’s early days as NIAID Director was revealed In February 2022. Several investigations uncovered the illegal, forced drug experimentation of orphans for AIDS research that had begun in 1992. Fauci’s NIAID was pursuing, through human-subject testing, a variety of pharmaceutical products in seven U.S. states. About 14,000 children, mostly minority, were given drugs like AZT already known to be deadly in adults. “If the children refused the drugs,” journalist Celeste McGovern reported, “they were held down and force fed. Further resisting children were sent to Columbia Presbyterian hospital where a surgeon put a plastic tube through their abdominal wall into their stomachs.” Some of the children were orphans, while others were born to mothers who tested HIV positive even though the PCR test was noted for its inaccuracy.
Another investigative journalist, Celia Farber, was directed by a whistleblower to an unidentified gravesite at Gates of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York. There she found approximately one-hundred wooden coffins stacked haphazardly in a very large pit covered with AstroTurf. Farber later learned that there was more than one child’s body in each coffin.
Photo Credit: Leopard – Getty Images.