For much of the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci claimed he had been “compulsively careful” of COVID-19, but a brief slip at a college reunion resulted in him contracting the virus in June.
Fauci recalled how he wanted to fit in with the crowd at his 60th college reunion and removed his mask to mingle. After testing positive for COVID-19 days later, Fauci said he learned firsthand just how transmissible the virus can be.
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“I had to go up to my 60th college reunion where they were honoring me by naming a building the Anthony Fauci Science Center, which was such a wonderful honor. And I went into the reception, and all of my classmates from the Class of 1962 were unmasked,” he recounted in an interview on the In The Bubble with Andy Slavitt podcast.
“I felt I looked so out of place with a mask on. I literally took my mask off for about 45 minutes, mingling with them and their family. Went back, put my mask on,” he added. “Five days later, bingo, I was infected.”
Fauci graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in 1962 before earning his doctor of medicine degree from Cornell University’s Medical College. He had been fully vaccinated and double boosted at the time of his COVID-19 infection.
Throughout much of the duration of the pandemic, Fauci had been one of the most prominent public figures that managed to evade the infectious virus.
In interview with @ASlavitt, Dr. Anthony Fauci said he caught COVID-19 after letting down guard at college reunion:
“I felt I looked so out of place with a mask on. I literally took my mask off for about 45 minutes, mingling with them and their family”https://t.co/iJdOy8TxPU https://t.co/Q2hGpblH9h pic.twitter.com/ux8CiyZKpn
— Alexander Tin (@Alexander_Tin) August 24, 2022
Fauci has been a vocal advocate of proper masking and social distancing to help curb the spread of the disease. After testing positive, the 81-year-old took Paxlovid to help mend his symptoms.
“It really made a difference. I mean, I was sniffling and a headache and a little bit aches. I took Paxlovid,” he said. “By the following morning, I was completely asymptomatic, which tells me that it really does work as an antiviral.”
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The doctor’s interview came after he announced Monday he will be stepping down from his positions as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and as the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden in December.
“While I am moving on from my current positions, I am not retiring,” Fauci said in his announcement. He served as the chief of NIAID for 38 years and had been in government for nearly 50.
