Fauci@80: Genes, running keep the workaholic doctor young

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, gestures after receiving his first dose of the new Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, U.S., December 22, 2020. Patrick Semansky/Pool via REUTERS - RC2FSK9I86JD

Eighty? Really? How do you do it, Dr Fauci?

The wiry, light-eyed, 60-ish looking face of the battle against COVID, who has worked almost 19 hours every day all of this year due to the pandemic, who has advised presidents from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump, turned 80 on December 24.

You may not have agreed with everything Dr Fauci said or did this year. He has his critics, particularly among Trump supporters, and needs security detail after he and his family received death threats from people not worthy of being in the same room as him.

But Fauci’s longevity and qualifications are off the charts and beyond doubt. After getting his degree as a doctor from Cornell University and then learning his ropes with brutal shifts at a hospital, Fauci has overseen health crises over five decades, ranging from AIDS to COVID-19. It has required the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to maintain a punishing schedule.

“There is no option to get tired. There is no option to sit down and say ‘I’m sorry, I’ve had enough,’ ” Fauci told The Washington Post this week. When exhausted, he told himself: “I’m gonna dig deep and just suck it up.”

Through all this Fauci found time to run almost daily. He would famously do 7 miles in an hour during his lunch hour till not long ago. He then cut it down to 3.5 miles, and of late, he does a 3.5-mile power walk everyday with his wife Christine.

“I love to run. It’s one of the few things that I don’t need to look for motivation,” Fauci said in an interview in 2016. “I don’t look outside and say, ‘Oh, gee, I’ve got to run’. I look outside and say, ‘I can’t wait to get out there’. Physiologically it makes me feel good. The endorphin level is great. It’s kept my weight down.”

Equally importantly, Fauci said, “I think the benefit [of running] for me is as a stress-reliever. I have a pretty high-stress job, so getting outside during the day and hearing the birds and smelling the grass is a very pleasing thing for me.”

This year, Fauci told InStyle magazine, “I make exercise a significant part of my regimen. Christine and I put in 3½ miles of power walking every day. I used to say “run,” but I don’t run very much anymore because at the end of the run, various parts of my body hurt so much. Power walking is very enjoyable and relaxing, and we look forward to it.”

Another reason for Fauci’s health is his genes. His father lived up to 97 and had the same youthful appearance.

Fauci has a birthday-and-Christmas tradition, which he followed this year too. He cooks a staggering Italian dish called timpano, a big baked wheel of excess containing pasta, cheese, eggs, meatballs, salami and everything that is good on the taste buds but disastrous for the heart. Unless you burn it off regularly like the 80-year-old machine called Dr Fauci.