Yes! For gay men of my generation and older, Anthony Fauci is hero. Against all expectations, he allied himself with Act Up leaders (like Peter Staley) and directed the forces of the US public health system against HIV, treating it as the health emergency it truly was.

He listened carefully to people like Peter living with HIV and AIDS, and he implemented many of their suggestions for accelerating research and treatment protocols.

This had a huge positive impact not just on HIV infection but on infectious-disease research and treatment in general.

The entire nation owes him thanks for improving how we develop treatment for infectious diseases, and how we can make treatment more quickly available to keep people alive.

One of the most astonishing things about the COVID epidemic was watching some of the people who should have been thankful trash Dr Fauci. Anti-expert, anti-science conspiracy theorists are still trashing him.

Just one sign of how toxic, dangerous, and deeply ignorant our national political environment is right now.