Advocating for science and truth

Show Me the Science

In this episode, we hear from two physician-scientists who have been leaders in the U.S. effort to deal with two medical crises that emerged almost 40 years apart: HIV/AIDS and COVID-19. Anthony S. Fauci, MD, the recently retired director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), spoke to Washington University School of Medicine’s 2023 graduating class. His role at NIH made him a leader in the worldwide effort to understand and develop treatments for HIV/AIDS, beginning shortly after the virus first was recognized. Also, in those early days of HIV/AIDS, William G. Powderly, MD, tested emerging therapies at the School of Medicine’s AIDS Clinical Trials Unit, which he oversaw.

Powderly, now the Larry J. Shapiro Director of the Institute for Public Health, co-director of the Division of Infectious Diseases, and the J. William Campbell Professor of Medicine and director of the Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences at the School of Medicine, points to key similarities and differences between the nation’s response to HIV/AIDS and to COVID-19. In both cases, he says, the key to a successful response involved embracing science and battling against theories that are untrue.

In his Commencement speech, Fauci told the 110 newly minted physicians who graduated this spring that they must push back on destructive forces that dispute science. He advised the new doctors to push back with civility, but also with all of the strength they can muster. While he was at Washington University, Fauci also spoke to the St. Louis press corps about the end of the COVID-19 emergency and where we go from here.

The podcast, “Show Me the Science,” is produced by WashU Medicine Marketing & Communications at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.