[imagesource: New York Times]

There would have been few Americans more stoked to see the end of Donald Trump’s presidency than Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Having served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, Fauci was often left on the sidelines during press conferences, whilst Donald Trump spoke about injecting disinfectant and how COVID-19 was going to magically disappear.

It didn’t, it hasn’t, and at least half a million Americans have died thus far, with more than 28 million confirmed cases.

Fauci is now back in the frame as chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden, and he seems in decent spirits.

He was recently asked by Axios what he planned to do for Valentine’s Day (a quiet dinner at home – he is 80, after all), and then attention turned towards a new dating term.

You’ve heard of ‘bread-crumbing’, ‘cuffing’, ‘ghosting’, and the like – if you haven’t, congrats – but what about ‘Fauci-ing’?

Urban Dictionary defines Fauci-ing as “declining to date someone because you don’t feel they’re taking COVID-19 seriously enough”.

When Dr. Fauci was informed of this new term, he had himself a good chuckle:

Thankfully, I haven’t had to Fauci anyone, but there were some awkward conversations around Christmas and New Year’s regarding everyone not being on the same page regarding precautions.

It wasn’t all a laughing matter, with Dr. Fauci acknowledging that it’s a particularly difficult time for young people:

“It would be really frustrating to essentially semi-isolate yourself at a time when you’re trying to explore social interactions with people. That leads to a considerable amount of stress and maybe even depression on the part of some people.”

“It really is an extraordinary stress on, on people at every level of life, in every age. For younger people, you know, who are at the point where they’re very interested in socializing, you know, obviously, when you and I were at that age, we felt probably the same thing.”

In an interview with CNN, Dr. Fauci also said that whilst it was originally hoped that any American who wanted to get a vaccine could do so by April, mid-May or early June was now a more realistic timeline.

I guess that means Fauci-ing somebody won’t be going away just yet.

[source:axios]