A reporter for ABC News told Dr. Anthony Fauci last year that she would do nothing that would “jeopardize” him, according to newly released emails.
Fauci responded the next day by thanking Phillips.
ABC News and Phillips did not respond to requests for comment.
Other members of the media also wrote to Fauci, the longtime head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
David Bradley, the chairman of Atlantic Media, which owns The Atlantic, alerted the doctor to his media’s coverage of him as a “heartthrob.”
The article was focused on how some Americans had supposedly fallen in love with Fauci.
Bradley didn’t return an inquiry.
In another case, New York Times reporter Sheila Kaplan complained to staffers at the National Institutes of Health in the wake of a rejected request to speak with Dr. Francis Collins, the head of the agency.
Forwarded the message, Fauci said he did not recall getting a request from the reporter.
“I am completely swamped and so it may have just gotten buried in a pile and I did not see it. I apologize. I am mostly locked into the White House where we must give up our phones and so it makes it very difficult for me to return calls. I talk to Francis all the time and he is very well versed in these issues. He will do a fine job of providing you with the information you need. If you would still like to speak with me later on, we can try to make that work. Again, I am sorry if you felt snubbed,” Fauci wrote.
Collins later informed Fauci that he spoke to Kaplan, who “greatly appreciated your message of apology.”
Kaplan did not immediately return a request for comment.
Then-New York Times reporter Donald McNeil Jr. wrote to Fauci one day in February 2020 to muse about the differences between Chinese people and Americans.