On wearing face masks: “It dominates everything I do. The only time I don’t wear one is when I am alone, when I am home with my wife.”
By Alex Y. Vergara
Will we ever get to shake hands again or hug someone other than the people we live with in a spontaneous show of joy and affection? Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the United States, believes “it’s going to be a while,” or until a vaccine against COVID-19 becomes available.
And Dr. Fauci, also one of the lead members of the Trump administration’s White House Coronavirus Task Force, in a recent interview with journalists, as shared with PeopleAsia by Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez, remains very optimistic on this.
“We have multiple candidates,” he declared, “and my hope is that we will have more than one [vaccine], probably by the end of this year or the beginning of 2021.”
As news, both real and otherwise, continue to flood social media on COVID-19, a topic that has consumed nearly all of us since early this year, Dr. Fauci, a physician and seasoned immunologist, set the record straight and shared with journalists a number of practical measures to avoid getting sick based on his expertise and own experience of living in a big city during a pandemic.
On wearing face masks, a supposed basic measure to control the spread of COVID-19, but which still continues to divide many Americans, Dr. Fauci has this to say: “It dominates everything I do. The only time I don’t wear one is when I am alone, when I am home with my wife, or when I am speaking in public.”
And when he does, for instance, during recent Congressional hearings, Dr. Fauci makes sure that there’s a six-feet distance between him and the people he’s speaking with.
Keeping your distance also involves the people you allow to enter into your home. Dr. Fauci, who lives in Washington D.C. with his wife Christine, said that the only person who enters his house once every two weeks is the cleaning lady. And when she does her work, she’s required to wear a face mask and gloves at all times inside the Fauci residence.
At 79, Dr. Fauci can’t be faulted for being too careful. As a senior citizen, he, together with younger, but immunocompromised individuals with underlying health problems, is susceptible to the novel and highly contagious coronavirus.
And such safety measures shadow him when he shops in grocery stores or gets a haircut. As part of the high-risk group, Dr. Fauci has also avoided riding public transport, including crowded subways. He’s also in no hurry of getting on a plane anytime soon.
“I’m not getting on a plane,” he declared. “I have been on flights (before) where I’ve been seated near people who were sneezing and coughing, and then three days later, I’ve got it. So no chance. No Metro, no public transportation. I’m in a high-risk group, and I don’t want to play around.”
But he still does his own grocery shopping regularly. Unlike before, he now wears a face mask and keeps his distance from other people whenever he does.
“I usually go at odd times. I spend half the day alone in my office, and I’m part-time at the White House. In late afternoon or evening, when I’m finished with the White House, I go shopping for groceries, or to drugstores,” he said.
Unlike some people, Dr. Fauci doesn’t disinfect the bags. Instead, he takes his purchases out of the bags, then washes his hands with soap and water before using Purell. He lets everything sit for a day. And instead of dining inside restaurants these days, he and his wife get takeout.
On dealing with mail and various packages, Dr. Fauci, at the start of the pandemic, used to take additional precautionary measures when he dealt with them.
“Now, I just bring in the mail, wash my hands, then let it (mail) lie around for a day or two before I open it,” he said.
Before the pandemic hit, he usually went for a haircut every five weeks. But like most of us, he said he didn’t go to the barber for a long while. By the 11th week, his hair was already looking far from flattering.
“So, I asked the woman who cuts my hair if I could come in really early in the morning, at 7 a.m., and we arranged to do that,” he shared. No one else was there. She wore a mask and I wore a mask.”
Instead of going to a public gym—another activity he has avoided, Dr. Fauci gets his exercise by swimming in their private pool at home. He and Christine also go on regular “power” walks. Until a year ago, the energetic doctor ran to keep fit. But he had to stop because every time he did, his back would tighten up the next morning.
“Now, I walk the same distance,” he said. “It just takes longer. We go every day with few exceptions—3.5 miles per day during the week, four miles over the weekend. Prior to COVID-19, I did it at lunchtime alone in the parks near NIH (National Institute of Health). Now, I do it in the evening with Chris around the neighborhood. On weekends, Chris and I do it together on the C&O Canal.”
Near the end of his talk, Dr. Fauci also shared a personal anecdote about him and their middle daughter, a New Orleans-based teacher. When states started closing schools one by one sometime in March, their daughter decided to drive up to Washington D.C. to stay for a while with them. From there, she planned to continue teaching her students online. It was an odd way to start a reunion, but, in the end, thanks to everyone’s vigilance, it worked out for everybody’s benefit.
“When she got here, she went straight through the back entrance into the basement, which has a room with a bed, shower and electricity,” Dr. Fauci shared. “She stayed there and did not come upstairs for 14 days. My wife brought food down to her on paper dishes.”
Since she lives in a very high-risk city where COVID-19 cases were initially quite high, she wouldn’t let any of her elderly parents near her. Taking to heart, perhaps, what her father has been tirelessly espousing publicly since the pandemic began to, among others, isolate one’s self to help protect more vulnerable members of the population, their daughter did just that without being told. In fact, it was Dr. Fauci who wanted to get near her.
“I wanted to hug her when she arrived, but she said: ‘No way, dad.’ She came upstairs after 14 days (of self-isolation), and then stayed with us for several months,” Dr. Fauci concluded.
