Like many college students working on Capitol Hill, Dr. Luke Messac began his summer 2007 internship at the office of former Washington Representative Jim McDermott with high aspirations.
He would rub shoulders with those equipped with the power to legislate change, build meaningful relationships, and become a leader. But he soon learned that the lawmakers he admired so much were not as accessible as he originally believed them to be.
“Washington is such a hierarchical place,” Messac told NBC News. “I spent all my time answering letters and emails from voters and opening the mail, and very rarely had time to meet with decision makers or people with high authority.”
So when the Harvard University senior sent an email to the government’s top infectious disease expert requesting an interview for his undergraduate thesis on global AIDS policy during the tenure of former President George W. Bush, I did not expect Dr. Anthony Fauci to respond.
“I sent him an email thinking, ‘What the hell? I’m here. Why don’t I try?’” Messac said. “He e-mailed me right away saying, ‘We’re going to schedule a meeting.'”
Messac, now an emergency medicine resident at Brown University, said Fauci “did a long time” for him and “was very patient” for his many questions, adding that he doesn’t think he could have written the thesis without the idea of Fauci given that the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was one of the main architects of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Launched in 2003, PEPFAR is a federal initiative dedicated to fighting the global HIV / AIDS epidemic. According to the State Department, the federal government has invested more than $ 85 billion in response to HIV / AIDS through the effort, making PEPFAR “the largest commitment of any nation to address a single disease in history.”
Messac, who earned his medical degree and a doctorate in history from the University of Pennsylvania, said he wanted to know how PEPFAR originated under Bush, given that “many conservative Republicans had long opposed spending on AIDS and foreign aid. usually”.
The meeting, which was held at the headquarters of the National Institutes of Health, went well, according to Messac’s account, particularly because Fauci is “such a welcoming and avuncular guy.” But it was Fauci’s response after the publication of his thesis that made a lasting impression on him.
Messac said he emailed Fauci with the thesis to thank him for the meeting, not imagining that the renowned immunologist would actually read it, since only his mother and the committee that rated the project had seen it at the time. Fauci not only read the newspaper, but called it “magnificent” and asked Messac for permission to quote his ideas with due attribution in a follow-up email. Messac posted a copy of Fauci’s response to social media on Thursday in a now viral tweet that has garnered more than 425,000 likes.
“13 years ago, I emailed Dr. Fauci out of the blue to ask if I could interview him for my bachelor thesis,” Messac tweeted. “He invited me into his office, where he answered all my questions. When I sent him the thesis, he READ EVERYTHING (see his overly effusive criticism below). Who does that ?!”
“I learn continuously, even from people like you … who are much younger than me,” Fauci wrote in the email. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to cite some of your ideas with proper attribution if the opportunity arises in my talks and interviews. I’ve often hinted at these concepts, but you’ve added studies to them, and now I feel more comfortable with them.”
Fauci also wished Messac good luck in his future “highly successful career” and instructed him to contact him if he could offer further assistance.
“I have carried it with me for a long time,” Messac said of the email. “I ended up getting a Ph.D. in history and an MD and I think I’ve carried him ever since. He talks about being a perpetual student and obviously I feel the same way because I’m still training. I think it’s a good message and one that I have taken very deeply into. serious and talking about how to make a real difference in the world in the long term. “
Messac’s tweet comes as COVID-19 cases rise in the US and the White House tries to discredit Fauci, who had been a leading member of the White House coronavirus workforce and a key communicator with the public until he was diverted for deviating from President Donald Trump’s public messages about the pandemic. Trump maintains that the virus will simply “disappear,” even as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations increase across the country.
Messac, who has been working with several coronavirus patients, said he did not necessarily post the tweet in response to attacks on Fauci’s credibility, but because he wanted to show people a “different side” of the public figure.
“For many of us in medicine, he is such an important voice. He edits one of the leading medical textbooks, has had thousands of publications, and has struggled with some of the worst diseases we have,” Messac said. “A lot of people in medicine trust him, so hearing his voice was very comforting during a very scary time and still is.”
However, it was also “gratifying” for Messac to see a man he had so much admired becoming a household name, engaging in Instagram conversations with celebrities like NBA player Stephen Curry, and even posing for the cover of InStyle magazine. While treating coronavirus patients while dealing with the “uncertainty and fear” of knowing that he can only do so much “because we don’t yet have the therapies and tools we need,” Messac finds solace in Fauci’s updates on the virus without precedents.
He said he decided to post the tweet because he recently published a book titled “No More to Spend: Negligence and Building Scarcity in Malawi’s Healthcare History,” and in doing so reflected on the people who helped him. the way, including Fauci. Messac said he received responses from those who knew and worked with the scientist, including a woman who claimed that Fauci saved the life of a loved one from a deadly disease. Thousands of people who don’t know Fauci personally have also found life lessons that resonate in email, including the benefits of lifelong learning and the importance of leaders elevating others of lower rank, as evidenced by the tweet responses.
However, if there is something to bring people to shine from Fauci’s email, Messac hopes that people will realize the importance of working together to combat a pandemic that has not only robbed people of their livelihoods, but also of their lives.
“I really wish that we were approaching this as a community and that we had the feeling that we are all in this together, because we are. We have to be. It is the only way to beat this,” Messac said. said. “I know there is a lot of fighting, anger, uncertainty and fear, but I want people to see that we can only overcome this if we do it together.”
