Fauci says daughter ‘saddened greatly’ by death of boyfriend’s brother, 32, from virus
He warned that while COVID-19 typically is non-fatal for young, healthy folk, it's unpredictable, leading to long-term issues.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has been one of America’s most trusted medical leaders during the coronavirus pandemic, recently confirmed that the virus has impacted his own family.
The nation’s leading disease expert said the brother of his youngest daughter’s boyfriend died from COVID-19 at only 32, despite being previously healthy.
Fauci made the revelation during a livestream interview hosted by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and moderated by Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN. It was in response to a question about whether Fauci knew anyone personally who had been impacted by COVID-19.
He noted that the man died of heart complications following a battle with the virus, which has killed more than 280,000 Americans.
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Fauci continued to warn that while the virus typically is non-fatal for young, healthy people, it is unpredictable and can lead to long-term complications.
“You don’t want to overwhelm the general public, but you want them to at least understand that you’re dealing with real suffering and real disease and real loss in the form of death of loved ones,” Fauci said. “There has to be motivation enough for at least most of the people to adhere to the public health issues and public health recommendations that we make.”
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During the same virtual town hall, Academy Award-winning actress Octavia Spencer asked about how Americans could gain more trust in the forthcoming coronavirus vaccines.
“How do we amplify the [trusted] voices?” Spencer asked.
Fauci urged Americans to trust the Food and Drug Administration, which is expected to approve the vaccines for emergency use this month.
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“I think the authority should be the United States Food and Drug Administration,” he said.
Fauci — who turns 80 on Christmas Eve — noted that he would take an FDA-approved vaccine.
An advisory panel for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is meeting today to discuss the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
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