SEATTLE — Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden's top medical advisor, was in Seattle Tuesday to receive the honorary Hutch Award from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
Fauci is only the second non-baseball player to receive the honor that traditionally is given to a champion of health care off the baseball field.
Fauci was hosted by long-time friend and colleague Dr. Larry Corey, former president of the Fred Hutch. The two have worked closely together since the early 1980s while making advancements in HIV/AIDS research. Both men have communicated almost daily during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fauci, who has served as the nation's top infectious disease expert, opened up to a group of about 100 Fred Hutch employees and medical experts about his long career and where he thinks the country is headed in the fall and winter months with COVID-19 still prevalent today.
"We are expecting another surge in the fall," he said.
Fauci, who was flanked by Secret Service agents, is still the target of anti-science rhetoric and said he still feels for the safety of himself and his family, an experience that appeared to be clearly weig
"It's still amazing to me that people can still hold onto such untruths. They have so much going on in their lives, that they just accept it as fact," Fauci said.
Fauci also said new advancements in vaccine technology appear promising. New research suggests a stronger vaccine is possible in the coming months by targeting more than just the spike protein of the coronavirus.
He told KING 5's Jake Whittenberg that vaccine booster shots will be critical for Americans in the fall.
"They will be so important because we see the effectiveness waning after four months," Fauci explained.
When asked about the spread of the monkeypox virus, Fauci said science and society are in a much better place than they were in the 1980s and '90s during the spread of the AIDS virus. Monkeypox is proving to be especially prevalent in the LGBTQ community.
Fauci also threw out the first pitch of the Seattle Mariners-New York Yankees match-up at T-Mobile Park Tuesday. Fauci is famously a life-long Yankees fan.