Mediaboss Marketing

As Dr. Anthony Fauci was honored at his alma mater, the College of the Holy Cross where a building was named after him on Saturday, the nations top authority on the coronavirus pandemic appeared unable to resist making a few thinly veiled swipes at former President Donald Trump.

More than a year after Trump left the White House and Fauci was named chief medical adviser to current President Joe Biden, evidence of the strained relationship between Fauci and the former president shone bright. The two were often at odds as the COVID-19 pandemic unraveled in 2020 and Trump repeatedly tried to downplay the severity of the highly infectious and deadly virus.

Fauci, in his nearly eight-minute speech at the campus on Saturday, discussed the challenges of grappling with the political divisiveness that has been laid bare by this pandemic in his capacity as a public health official.

He pointed to his education at Holy Cross, where delved into the humanities, allowing him to learn about societies and civilizations wisdom he told MassLive in an interview that has been invaluable throughout his career in public service.

Everything I do from our basic research to my care of individual patients, to my responsibility to the groups of patients in a clinical trial, to my responsibility to domestic and global public health to to advising seven presidents of the United States almost all of whom actually listened to me it truly is all rooted here in my education here at the College of the Holy Cross, Fauci told a crowd of students, faculty and alumni gathered at the freshly renamed Anthony S. Fauci Integrated Science Complex.

The rededication ceremony happened as Fauci and his classmates celebrated their 60th class reunion.

The recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom the highest honor given to a civilian by the President of the United States and the National Medal of Science, Fauci graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in classics with a premedical concentration. He has often credited the liberal arts education he received at Holy Cross with propelling him to a successful career in medicine.

Concern for the condition of mankind not just those in my personal bubble, whom i love and care about, but people across all strata of society and around the world has been my major focus. I directly relate that to my humanities training here at holy cross and to the jesuit emphasis on social justice and service to others, Fauci continued.

Fauci said he has looked to the Jesuit principles to guide his career and pointed to the tenet of staying faithful to the truth, even truths that may be inconvenient to some.

Dr. Fauci has shown us that mankind can be courageous, kind and undeterred, said Holy Cross President Vincent D. Rougeau on Saturday. We can trust science and eschew the normalization of untruths. We can believe in public service and social responsibility. In the darkest hours and brightest spotlights, we can be joyful, purposeful and hopeful.

Trump repeatedly tried to muzzle Fauci as the pandemic unfolded and the Republican president attempted to cater to his base, which largely bucked public health recommendations for masking and social distancing. Fauci, with his clear and science-forward messaging, emerged as somewhat of a liberal surrogate, a label that endures and one that inspired a small protest of anti-COVID vaxxers from as far away as Rhode Island to show up on Saturday.

About two dozen people toting signs, some screaming through bullhorns congregated at the entrance of the college on Saturday morning.

Chants of lock him up and Fauci for prison, long popular among conservative protesters erupted with a new Shame on Un-Holy Cross thrown in the mix.

Signs were scrawled with messages like Vaxxes dont stop the spread!!, Death by vax, Arrest Fauci for crimes against humanity and more.

Karen Johnson, a registered nurse from Providence, Rhode Island, said she lost her job of 20 years at Women and Infants due to the hospitals workplace COVID vaccine requirement.

I lost my job due to the vaccine mandate and I lost everything just to stand up for my rights, Johnson said, noting she was unable to pay her mortgage for several months. Though she secured another nursing job at a nursing home in Rhode Island, she had to take a $10 per hour pay cut.

Johnson said shes against workplace mandates for an experimental vaccine. Though the COVID mRNA vaccines were initially approved on an emergency basis, both have since received full approval by the Food and Drug Administration.

The scene playing out with protesters on McKeon Road is indicative of what Fauci referred to as the existential threat of untruths that he said are as dangerous as the coronavirus pandemic itself.

When you have things that are as cataclysmic as a pandemic which in our own country has already killed 1 million people and globally has killed more than 6 million by definition and two-or-three times that number because of uncounted deaths it brings out the best and the worst in society, Fauci told reporters after the ceremony. Weve seen devotion on the part of health care providers whove sacrificed themselves and their families and their two-and-a-half years of exhaustion and post traumatic stress and yet youve seen distortions of reality, conspiracy theories, stigma, racism you know, the best and the worst comes out when you stress society.

Go here to read the rest:
Dr. Anthony Fauci makes thinly veiled digs at Donald Trump during College of the Holy Cross building dedicati - MassLive.com