Anthony Fauci Shares Disease‑Fighting Expertise with Georgetown Students

Distinguished University Professor Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke to Georgetown students and faculty about the challenges of fighting against emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases in the latest Department of Microbiology & Immunology seminar on February 24, 2026.

Fauci shared experiences and insights from his career as a physician, immunologist and infectious disease researcher, presidential advisor, and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. Over his 38 years as NIAID director, Fauci worked on the front lines of responding to infectious disease threats, from the HIV/AIDS epidemic, to West Nile Virus, to Ebola and COVID-19. He left NIAID in 2022 and joined the Georgetown faculty in 2023.

Fauci encouraged students to keep working to protect public health despite recent policy changes that could make it more difficult for American scientists to combat infectious disease outbreaks – such as the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO), and cuts to funding for global HIV/AIDS relief. And in an age of online misinformation, Fauci emphasized the need for experts to build public trust in medicine: “You need to start talking up the importance of critical thinking and making evidence-based assessments of what works and doesn’t work.”

As Fauci spoke with students after his talk, his advice for those preparing to begin public health careers was simple but backed by the weight of experience: “Don’t give up.”