"It's incredible because no one thought it was going to turn out this way and all of a sudden we are winning everything," Red Sox fan Terry Graham said. "It's incredible."

Boston Red Sox fans have a lot to be happy about. They are on another hot win streak, and the team now has more weapons after acquiring three-time All-Star catcher Adley Rutschman from the Baltimore Orioles.

"I think with Adley and a couple of relievers, they got a good shot to make a run," said Red Sox fan Nick Patti. "They're on fire."

"The Sox are hot," Red Sox fan Jay Wisdom said. "Sorry, Orioles, we had to fleece you a little bit."

The Red Sox winning and keeping this hot streak going means big business for vendors.

"Oh, huge difference, huge difference," said Anthony Prizio of Coast to Coast. "Selling more, tipping better. People are better coming out of the games."

Next up are the Chicago White Sox in a three-game series at Fenway Park. The Red Sox routed the White Sox 14-2 Tuesday night. 

Fans spent the day gearing up and going on tours at Fenway Park before the game.

"First a tour of Fenway Park then going to the Sox game and I have California cousins visiting and it's been a little painful for them for the last few days. Yes, big trade and we just swept them in L.A.," Graham said of the Red Sox weekend sweep of the Dodgers.

Boston has been the hottest team in baseball after winning 24 of their last 27 games. 

"I think they'll go pretty far," said Red Sox fan Blaine Haynes. "I think with that 15-game win streak, they're starting to heat up at the right time. I think they'll go pretty far in the playoffs."

Revolution defender Matt Polster said they all share a passion for soccer. "When we're all coming together in a single stadium playing on the same field and enjoy that moment," Polster said. "I think just enjoying that together is awesome."

At Patriot Place Tuesday night, the annual "Bowl for a Goal" event supported the continued success of unified sports, and the difference the program makes in the lives of players, partners, and spectators.

"It's exciting to be on this team," said Bill Scanlon of the unified team. "It's amazing."

"It's the people, honestly. The friendships I've made have been awesome," said unified team member Alyson Green. "The athletes, the partners, everybody, we're all the same here."

"To be honest, I thought I wasn't going to make it, but apparently I did," said Benjamin Walsh of the unified team.

The unified roster represents the Revolution competing against other unified teams across the league. They already hosted their home match. Next up, they'll travel internationally to take on Toronto on Aug. 15.

The program's mission of inclusion isn't just for the unified players; it's for all of us, helping everyone be better teammates off the field in life.

"When you can see someone's abilities on the field and you can say, 'oh, they're a really good soccer player,' you don't see their disabilities off the field," said Mary Beth McMahon, president and CEO of Special Olympics Massachusetts. "If we can influence the next generation of people, that would just be the best outcome ever."

The New England Revolution Foundation raised a record $145,000 for Special Olympics Massachusetts at the event.

"Just the memories that we make and the friendships that we make," Walsh said. "It makes me want to kind of tear up. Because seriously, this is a big deal." 

Caleb Durbin hit a grand slam, Patrick Sandoval earned his first major league win in more than two years and the Boston Red Sox extended their winning streak to six games with a 14-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night. 

Wilyer Abreu launched a pair of solo homers for the rolling Red Sox, who hit four home runs for the second consecutive game and have won 24 of their last 27. 

Sandoval (1-0) struck out five and allowed two runs on six hits and four walks over five-plus innings. It was his first win since May 7, 2024, when he pitched for the Angels before missing half that season and all of 2025 while recovering from Tommy John surgery. 

The Red Sox had to come from behind in their previous six wins but broke this one open early with six runs in the first. Durbin did the bulk of the damage with a grand slam to left field and Jarren Durran followed with a shot to right. Ceddanne Rafaela, whose streak of three straight games with a homer came to an end, also had an RBI single in the inning. 

Brayan Bello pitched the final three innings for Boston and picked up his first career save. 

Davis Martin (9-6) allowed nine runs and 10 hits for Chicago. He was pulled with nobody out in the sixth after a hit batter and a single started another six-run inning for Boston. 

Miguel Vargas got Chicago on the board with a sacrifice fly in the fifth. 

Brenton Doyle had an infield single in the fourth during his White Sox debut, one day after coming over in a trade with Colorado. New catcher Joey Bart also played his first game for Chicago after a deadline deal with Atlanta. 

Up next 

White Sox RHP Sean Burke (7-5, 3.04 ERA) faces RHP Sonny Gray (13-2, 2.93) and the Red Sox in the middle game of the series Wednesday.

Police said the homeowner was away for the weekend and made the chilling discovery on their surveillance video.

Police say it looks like the man came from a nearby trail to the home on Highland Street. At one point the man was holding a flashlight approaching the house.

In another instance, investigators say it looks like the suspicious man is carrying a hunting chair he picked up from the house to the woods. Another image showed him wearing a bicycle helmet.

All those clues led police to believe the man was there with criminal intent.

"I've been doing this for a long time and yeah, it's creepy, there is no doubt about it," said Weston Police Chief Denis Linehan. "Anytime you have someone on somebody else's property masked, I don't care what time of day it is, that is concerning and then you add the factor that it is three in the morning and he was on that property for an extended period of time, we're overly concerned."

Investigators say the man was finally scared off the property when he saw surveillance cameras there.

Police hope to find more surveillance videos from neighbors between the hours of 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. on August 2, 2026. Weston police say even the smallest detail could help.

After watching your team stand pat or make minimal impact moves at baseball's trade deadline the last several years, ownership, Craig Breslow and his baseball operations staff said "Let's go for it!" Monday with some significant deals.

Your baseball team is better off for it.

As good as Carlos Narvaez was last year, it was a struggle for the catcher this season.

Enter Adley Rutschman.

The number one overall pick of the 2019 draft hasn't been the superstar for the Baltimore Orioles many predicted he would be. But, he's been pretty darn good. He's a three time All-Star, who can play some defense. Over his career, he's a .254 hitter with a .756 OPS.

"Playing against them, this team has been extremely hot and been doing a lot of stuff the right way, so, excited to fit in where I can, and just try and help the team as much as possible," Rutschman told reporters in Boston on Tuesday.

He is currently on the injured list with a left wrist issue but is looking forward to playing at Fenway Park.

"From playing here, the city loves baseball, always has a great atmosphere and I'm excited to play in it," Rutschman said. 

The former Oregon State star is a grinder. He'll lead the pitching staff and the team from the back end. IF he can stay healthy, you've got yourselves a good foundation for the rest of this season - and years to come. The Red Sox also added a veteran catcher in Jake Rogers too, which will help.

Saying goodbye to Marcelo Mayer is tough, because of the flash and promise he showed after the Red Sox selected him fourth overall in the 2021 draft. He just never could stay healthy or show the Sox on the big league level what he could become.

The best thing for him? A change of scenery. Maybe he matures like Tyler Seguin did when the Boston Bruins traded him to the Dallas Stars. I wish Mayer well.

The Red Sox picked up left-handed relief pitcher Erik Miller for Mayer. Miller walks too many hitters, but his numbers are good.

MassLive's Sean McAdam described it well in a discussion with 98.5 The Sports Hub's Tony Massarotti. The Red Sox brought Aroldis Chapman in, got him to harness his stuff and he's been great. Maybe they can do the same with Miller. The bullpen always needs help.  

Adley Rutschman was still adjusting less than 24 hours after being traded for the first time in his career. 

Being in playoff contention may make for a smoother transition once the three-time All-Star catcher is ready to take the field for the Red Sox after spending his first four-plus seasons with the Baltimore Orioles. 

"Just from playing here, the city loves baseball. It always has a great atmosphere and I'm excited to play in it," Rutschman said Tuesday at Fenway Park before the Red Sox hosted the Chicago White Sox. "They're playing the game the right way and doing things right. It was cool to watch from a distance. Now being here, like I said - just trying to fit in and help out any way I can." 

Rutschman joined his new club on the injured list with left wrist inflammation. He and Boston interim manager Chad Tracy said Rutschman would meet with the team's medical staff to determine what's next in his rehabilitation and how soon he could be back behind the plate. 

Tracy said Rutschman is already swinging a bat and the Red Sox were hopeful to add him to their lineup soon. Boston also wasn't about to rush the recovery of a player that cost it a handful of top prospects in a deal pulled off shortly before Monday's trade deadline. 

"It's been feeling good. I've got to get with the medical staff here and kind of just see what the next steps are moving forward," said Rutschman, who's been on the IL since July 20. "I don't exactly know just what kind of timeline and how all that goes." 

Rutschman moved from the Orioles, who were 12 games back in the AL East and on the fringes of the wild-card race entering Tuesday night, to the Red Sox, who were 5 1/2 games out of the division lead and in position for a wild card after winning 23 of their last 26 games. 

The Orioles stopped Boston's franchise record-tying winning streak at 15 games last month, but reaching the playoffs appeared less likely for Baltimore without Rutschman, the top overall pick in the 2019 draft. 

"I played my entire career there and there's been a lot of unbelievable memories. Just made a lot of great friends for life," Rutschman said. "It's tough goodbyes. But we're on to the next thing. And excited to be here and playing. It's all part of the game."

Rutschman said part of his down time will include getting to know Boston's pitchers, although there was already some familiarity.
"I've seen a lot of these guys pitch and faced them," Rutschman said. "I kind of understand how they attack guys but I'm definitely going to have some more in-depth conversations, just make sure that we're on the same page and it flows smoothly when we get out there." 

Whenever that is, Boston will be glad to have him. 

"I think it's a strong statement to the group with a player like that," Tracy said. "We went out and got a huge addition to our lineup and behind the plate. So it means a lot. We'll work through getting him healthy and getting him out there. But his history speaks for itself and who he is as a catcher and as an offensive player. So it's a big add for us."

First responders were called to a home on Sullivan Avenue at about 1:10 p.m. for a report that a woman was trapped underneath a tree that had fallen on a back porch.

"The preliminary investigation indicates that the victim was sitting outside on her porch when a large gust of wind caused the tree to snap and collapse onto the home and the victim," the Plymouth police and fire departments said in a statement.

She has been identified as 61-year-old Jennifer Buckley. Authorities said police officers and neighbors found her under the tree and immediately started lifesaving efforts, but she later died at the hospital.

Neighbors were devastated by the news. "Just a lovely woman. Always smiling, always happy. It's very sad," one neighbor told WBZ-TV.

The neighbor said she went outside to let her dog out. "The rain had let up for a bit and she has a dog. Her very best friend dog and the neighbor also has a dog," the neighbor said. "So, they both went out onto their back porch to let their animals out during the downpours and the neighbor heard this loud crack, and he looked over and a tree had fallen from State Road right onto her."

Plymouth police and the Plymouth County district attorney's office are investigating. 

While central and western Massachusetts were most affected by heavy rain that flooded some streets, the bigger concern in the southeast part of the state was the wind. Gusts were forecast to reach up to 40 m.p.h. in Plymouth on Monday afternoon.

Clancy, 35, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the deaths of her three children — 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan — at their home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, on Jan. 24, 2023.

Testimony about Lindsay Clancy's prescription pills

Massachusetts State Police Lt. Joseph Rabbit said he found four prescription pill bottles in a kitchen cabinet when executing a search warrant at the Duxbury home after the murders. He said Lindsay Clancy's ex-husband Patrick Clancy and a lawyer came to the district attorney's office on Feb. 6 with more prescription pill bottles in a CVS bag.

Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham pulled out pill bottles, one by one, and asked about how many pills were prescribed compared to how many were left in the bottle. The prosecution has argued that while Clancy was prescribed several drugs for her mental health struggles, she was not taking many pills from each bottle. 

The defense maintains she was overmedicated, and says a cocktail of several prescription drugs sparked a postpartum psychosis that led to Clancy killing her children.

"These were all pills that were issued on prescriptions in about a three-week period of time," defense attorney Kevin Reddington said in his questioning.

Crime lab workers testify

Several prosecution witnesses employed at the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab took the stand on Tuesday. There was testimony about blood collected from the home in Duxbury — jurors were shown the blood-stained knife previously seen in Clancy's bedroom.

Two Crime Lab technicians also testified that prescription drugs were detected in blood and urine tests done on Lindsay Clancy. The tests are unable to pinpoint exactly how many different drugs Clancy had in her system, they explained.

The Crime Lab witnesses testified that they found nothing in the three children's systems. 

South Shore Hospital surgeon testifies

The prosecution's first witness of the day was Dr. Cristina Karpio, a general surgeon at South Shore Hospital who treated Clancy immediately after the murders. She said Clancy's complex spinal injuries from her fall out of the second-story bedroom window required a transfer to Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston.

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington asked Dr. Karpio about the severity of Clancy's injuries. The defense has tried to counter the prosecution's argument that Clancy's suicide attempt was faked. 

"Did you know that your patient had coded shortly after being brought to Brigham & Women's Hospital?" Reddington asked.

"No," Dr. Karpio said.

"Did you know that she had to have massive transfusions right after being brought to the hospital in Boston?" Reddington asked.

"No," Dr. Karpio said.

Lindsay Clancy agrees to "stipulation of facts"

Before the jury entered the courtroom on Tuesday, Lindsay Clancy agreed to a "stipulation of facts."

She was sworn in by a court officer and answered questions from the judge, confirming that she and the prosecution agree on certain facts in the case.

"This stipulation basically relieves the government of having to bring in dozens, if not more, witnesses to prove chain of custody of blood, fluids, the bands, DNA, all of that," defense attorney Reddington said. "Rather than have days of testimony, the stipulation will avoid that."

Specifically, both sides agreed that toxicology testing on the three children was done correctly in the Crime Lab. 

The day of scientific testimony drew frustration from Reddington at times.

"Your Honor, there's no objection to any of this physical evidence," he said. 

Reddington has repeatedly told the court that Clancy admits what she did, and he wants the trial to be focused not on who did it, but why.

It's anticipated that doctors who treated Lindsay Clancy for psychiatric issues will take the stand as early as Wednesday.

Legal analyst on Lindsay Clancy trial

WBZ legal analyst Jennifer Roman explains that days of dry testimony are inevitable in a case like this. Eight witnesses took the stand Tuesday, most of them crime scene lab scientists testifying about testing blood in very scientific terms.

Much of the blood testimony related to Lindsay Clancy's suicide attempt. She's paralyzed from a spinal fracture that night and both sides debate whether she jumped from her bedroom window.

"Whether or not she flung herself out the window is part of the prosecution's theory that this was sort of a faked suicide attempt. She didn't mean to commit suicide. There were superficial wounds on her wrists and her throat, so she did that for show, to make it look like she was trying to commit suicide," Roman said of the prosecution's theory. 

What's happened in the Lindsay Clancy trial this week?

The jury in Plymouth Superior Court heard entries from Clancy's diary Monday and testimony about her state of mind before and after the murders. She admits to killing her children but claims it was due to severe postpartum psychosis. Prosecutors say her suicide attempt was fake and premeditated and the murders were planned.

The jury has heard from 32 witnesses after five days of testimony.

If convicted, Clancy faces life in prison without a chance of parole. If she's found not criminally responsible for the deaths of her children, she will be sent to a state mental health facility in Massachusetts. 

If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or a suicidal crisis, you can reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. You can also chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline here.

For more information about mental health care resources and support, The National Alliance on Mental Illness HelpLine can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.–10 p.m. ET, at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or email info@nami.org.

At least seven states have recently been targeted, including Michigan and Minnesota, with investigators believing Iran may be responsible.

For Nick Lawler, general manager of the Littleton Electric Light and Water Departments, reports of attacks on public utilities are concerning but not surprising.

"No, I think this has been a common story in all of our industries that we work in for decades," Lawler said.

Despite the relatively small size of the communities LELWD serves, the utility has firsthand experience with a sophisticated cyberattack.

Systems accessed by hackers in 2023

In 2023, Lawler said the Department of Homeland Security and FBI notified the department that its systems had been accessed by China-based hackers.

"These attacks are highly sophisticated. That was a zero-day vulnerability attack, meaning that there were no fixes and no solutions to it when it happened to us," Lawler said. "And the cyber threat actors were highly sophisticated in the attack and didn't leave a lot of breadcrumbs. So, it took a while for our federal partners to identify it, and once they did, we were hand-in-hand with them to get them off our systems."

Lawler said the hackers never gained access to the department's operational technology systems controlling its electric grid and water infrastructure. Had the hackers eventually gained access to operational systems, Lawler said they potentially could have interfered with infrastructure controlling the water system, treatments, even cutting the flow.

Lawler said the discovery initially caught the department off guard because Littleton is a small community and the department does not operate bulk electric systems.

But the incident drove home a larger lesson: Size doesn't necessarily make a utility less attractive to hackers.

"What we've learned, and I think what you're seeing now in current events, is if you can impact tens to twenties to maybe hundreds of these type of instances at once that can also have a big impact," Lawler said. "I think that's kind of the world we live in now is that anybody's a target."

Cybersecurity improvement in Littleton

The experience led Littleton officials to make a series of cybersecurity improvements.

Assistant General Manager Dave Ketchen said the department added multifactor authentication wherever possible, segmented its networks and placed additional limits on what users can do at different points within the system.

"Our network is a lot less flat now and it's more of a broader network that you really have to jump through hoops to do anything on now," Ketchen said.

Ketchen said many local utilities can be attractive targets because of the amount of, in some cases, outdated operational technology they use.

"A lot of them unfortunately are soft targets, just based on how much operational technology equipment is in the systems today," Ketchen said. "It's never too late to start improving your cyber posture, cyber needs to be the focus of every decision that you make today, operationally."

Littleton officials said reports detailing other cyberattacks can provide important lessons for utilities across the country.

Lawler has also become outspoken about sharing Littleton's experience, saying utilities can learn from one another when attacks or near misses occur.

"We're just trying to help our industry peers learn from things that happened to Littleton," Lawler said.

As utilities again confront reports of cyberattacks elsewhere in the country, Lawler said openly discussing those incidents is critical.

"I just encourage utilities and utility operations personnel to continue to talk about these events and share our insights and share whatever happens with these threat actors because again it's the only way we're going to learn is from each other," Lawler said.

At the state level, Massachusetts Water Resources Authority officials said they are actively monitoring concerns about cyberattacks but have not discovered any of the same vulnerabilities in their system that are being exploited elsewhere.

Oliver Derima, 27, of Randolph, pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and unlawful possession of a gun at his arraignment Tuesday in Boston Municipal Court in West Roxbury. Derima hid his face from cameras in the courtroom during the hearing.

Police said he shot and killed 26-year-old Ky Mani Korey Reynolds of Dorchester during a dispute outside of Little Haiti International Cuisine on Hyde Park Avenue around 12:30 a.m. Monday.

Investigators said surveillance video from outside the restaurant showed Derima walk up to Reynolds, who was on the ground, and fire twice, hitting him in the abdomen.

Derima's attorney said it all started with a group of people and other guns in a much bigger fight. Four other people were shot in the chaos that night including Derima, who was shot twice, according to his attorney.

"They got the wrong guy," his defense attorney, Anthony Ellison, said outside court Tuesday.

"In the police report they identify him in a struggle with another person. In that struggle, the gun goes off and it says he appears to be struck by a projectile. We'll look into that. There's issues of ballistics. There's issues of calibrations and bullets and casings that were found. We'll get to the bottom of it. We'll find out what happened."

The shooting happened just a short distance from a Boston Police station.

Anyone with information about the incident is urged to call police at 617-343-4470.

All five were found wounded on Hyde Park Avenue around 12:30 a.m. They were rushed to hospitals, but 26-year-old Ky Mani Korey Reynolds of Dorchester did not survive, police said.

Boston Police arrested 27-year-old Oliver Derima of Randolph and charged him with murder. He will be arraigned Tuesday in Boston Municipal Court in West Roxbury.

Investigators said there was some type of fight before the shooting. Neighbors said the area gets too rowdy on weekends.

"Any life lost is terrible, but to see what's going on here today, you expected something to happen sooner or later," said resident Stephen Borden. "I don't think it's shocking, I really don't. I know what goes on out here from Thursday to Sunday night. It's just a raging party, and it's been like that, and we've been complaining for months."

Less than a quarter of a mile away, the Boston police commissioner, the district attorney, and mayor made a stop in Hyde Park for National Night Out, an annual effort to promote better partnerships with police, to ultimately make neighborhoods safer.

"Our condolences go out to the family, but more importantly we're fairly confident we're going to do all we can to hold whoever is responsible, accountable," said Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox. "Violence has no place in our city."

"We'll continue to do everything we can to not only investigate this case but do everything we can to make sure that we're continuing to drive down cycles of violence all over the city," said Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden.

That's why the mayor says initiatives like National Night Out are critical for strengthening the bond between police and community.

"There's no better way to ensure our city is safe than to empower all our residents to be part of the solution to keep everyone safe," said Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Boston Police. 

Ceddanne Rafaela homered for the third straight game and the Boston Red Sox beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-4 on Sunday night to sweep the three-game series.

Masataka Yoshida homered and drove in two runs, and Jake Bennett (7-4) allowed three runs in 5 2/3 innings to help the Red Sox win their fifth straight game. Boston is 23-3 since July 3.

Emmet Sheehan (4-8) was pulled after allowing five runs in 2 2/3 innings, with the Red Sox pushing across two runs in a 30-pitch first inning.

Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu then clocked Sheehan for back-to-back homers to start the third inning, followed by Yoshida's solo shot for a 5-3 lead two batters later.

Rafaela went 7 for 14 with four homers and five RBIs in the series. He has an eight-game hitting streak with four straight multi-hit outings.

Jarren Duran picked up Boston's fourth solo homer in the sixth inning off reliever Kyle Hurt.

The Red Sox added two more runs in the eighth inning on a wild pitch and passed ball.

Andy Pages had three RBIs, but the Dodgers couldn't follow up any momentum created by their blockbuster trade for Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal on Saturday night.

Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing was pulled out of the lineup shortly before the game started because of right arm irritation, with Eliezer Alfonzo taking over behind the plate.

Up next

Red Sox: LHP Patrick Sandoval (0-0, 3.32 ERA) was set to start the opener of a three-game series at home against the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night.

Dodgers: LHP Justin Wrobleski (11-2, 2.88 ERA) could get the call in the first of three games at the Chicago Cubs on Monday night.

The Fauci Pharmacy is long-gone. But beneath the calm façade Dr. Anthony Fauci has shown the world for more than 50 years, he is still – as he says – "Brooklyn tough."

Did he get into fights every now and then? "How could you not?" he said.

"How'd you do?" LaPook asked.

"Well, I'm not the biggest guy in the world."

"But at 5'7", you were the captain of the basketball team. How did you do that?"

"I was very fast and I had a really good shot," Fauci said.

"What killed your NBA career?"

"I found out that a very fast, good shooting point guard who's 5'7" will always get destroyed by a point guard who's 6'3". That became very clear!" Fauci laughed. "So, I said, 'Oh, let me just settle for science, whatever.'"

There are millions today who owe their lives to the work of the man who "settled" for science. And as he chronicles in his new memoir, "On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service," Dr. Fauci's career treating infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health has been bookended by the two great pandemics of our time: AIDS and COVID-19.

When it first widely appeared in the early 1980s, a diagnosis of HIV/AIDS was a death sentence.

Dr. LaPook asked, "Looking at your background, you were brought up in Brooklyn in the '40s, kind of a conservative family. You might not necessarily predict that you would then go on to treat a group of people who were kind of shunned by society. What went into that?"

"What it was that, one of the predominant themes in my home, which was fortified with the Jesuit education, was empathy," Dr. Fauci replied. "My father was quite conservative, you know, an Eisenhower-type Republican, as was my mother. But my father was very, very much guided by empathy for anybody."

Although empathy for AIDS patients was in short supply, and he was criticized early on, Dr. Fauci used his position at the NIH to lobby the White House for funding – and for national attention.

He worked with seven presidents on AIDS, bird flu, swine flu, Ebola, Zika, and COVID. An AIDS program started with George W. Bush has saved an estimated 25 million lives worldwide. 

With Bill Clinton, Dr. Fauci established the NIH's Vaccine Research Center, which laid the groundwork for the record-breaking development of COVID vaccines during the Trump administration.

But that last collaboration hit a wall on April 3, 2020, the day President Trump held a press briefing in which he said the CDC was now recommending that people wear masks, and then he added, "This is voluntary. I don't think I'm going to be doing it."

Dr. Fauci said, "I was deeply disturbed by that, because he had the opportunity as the leader of the country with a very strong, devoted following to say, 'The CDC has recommended masks, and I'm gonna wear a mask, because masks are gonna protect me and protect others.' That really was a missed opportunity, because that was a signal to his devoted followers that you don't really have to listen to the CDC, you don't have to listen to the public health messages."

As the country's willingness to follow public health advice largely split along party lines, Dr. Fauci came under attack, and he received death threats.

Had that ever happened before? "No, not credible death threats where a person is arrested who was clearly intending to kill you," Dr. Fauci said. "And that's happened at least twice. We're acting like, we have a virus that's the common enemy and we're fighting with each other."

Earlier this month, Dr. Fauci was called before a Republican-led congressional committee to discuss pandemic origins and preparedness. But things quickly spun out of control, as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), said, "What this committee should be doing … we should be recommending you to be prosecuted."

Dr. LaPook asked, "How did we go, as a country, from absolutely adoring Jonas Salk, who helped develop the polio vaccine, he was a national hero, to Dr. Anthony Fauci having to have security details to stop people from killing him?"

"It's a reflection of the psyche of the country," Dr. Fauci replied. "If the purpose of the hearing is to figure out how we can do better to prevent and respond to and prepare for the next pandemic, well, that [attack] doesn't even begin to contribute to that."

One of the deepest points of controversy is the still-unknown origin of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the COVID-19 outbreak. Because the NIH has funded research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, there are accusations that American tax dollars could have paid to create SARS-CoV-2 through genetic manipulation, what's called "gain of function."

Dr. LaPook asked if this was biochemically and genetically possible. "No," Dr. Fauci replied. "When you have a virus, if you're gonna manipulate it in a way to make it a 'dangerous' virus, you have to start off with a precursor virus that's close enough to the virus that you ultimately make, that it is molecularly possible to do that. What is absolutely 100% certain is that the viruses that were studied under the NIH grant, for the kinds of experiments that were done, molecularly were so far removed from SARS-CoV-2 that they could not have turned it into SARS-CoV-2 even if they tried, which they obviously didn't do.

"But it was just so, what we call, phylogenetically distant ... what it means is that, evolutionarily it's so far, it would take 20 years of evolution to get it there. And that's something that just slips between the cracks when people talk about it," Dr. Fauci said. "What we're talking about is what the NIH funded, was viruses that could not possibly have done that."

COVID origins aside, Dr. Fauci has been subjected to other accusations, such as getting money from pharmaceutical companies. Dr. LaPook asked, "You have been offered money to leave the NIH, right, and join, say, pharma, right?"

"Right, or private equity," Dr. Fauci replied.

"How many times your current salary have you been offered, about?"

"So, at the time that I was getting offered it, I was making $125,000, $200,000. Then I would get offered a job that would get me $5, $6, $7 million a year."

"So, why didn't you take it?"

"Because I really felt what I was doing was having an impact on what I cared about, which was the health of the country and, indirectly, the health of the world," Dr. Fauci said. "And to me, that is priceless."

"There've been ups, there've been downs. It's been a lot of friction recently. Any regrets?"

"No. No," Dr. Fauci replied. "I mean, when you say regrets, any regrets of what I did? My choices? No. Could we have done things better on multiple points, inflection points along the way? Of course. 'Cause we're not perfect. You try your best and you realize with humility that you're not perfect. And you don't pretend to be perfect. But you go with what your best is, and then if you make a mistake, you try to correct it."

      
For more info:

• "On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service" by Anthony Fauci M.D. (Viking), in Hardcover, Large Print, eBook and Audio formats, available June 18 via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org

     
Story produced by Ed Forgotson. Editor: George Pozderec.