NIH triumphs a U.S. treasure, Bill Clinton says

Fauci praises his presidency at online foundation event

Former President Bill Clinton praised the National Institutes of Health as a "national treasure" during a virtual event with former administration officials on Tuesday.

"It's clear that the work that was done helped to speed the development of antiretrovirals for HIV AIDS, did important work in vaccine research and established the vaccine center, which I think hastened our ability to develop the covid vaccine," Clinton said.

The former president delivered the remarks during a virtual event hosted by the Clinton Foundation and the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service.

The National Institutes of Health -- the primary federal agency tasked with performing and supporting health, behavioral and medical research -- has 27 institutes and centers, according to the Congressional Research Service. The NIH is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Also speaking at the event was Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Fauci rocketed to national prominence in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic as a foil to then-President Donald Trump.

During Tuesday's event, Fauci highlighted the advances against HIV that were made under the Clinton administration, noting that Clinton established the Office of National AIDS Policy.

"We never had that before you came into the White House," Fauci said.

Fauci also recalled a 1996 meeting during which Clinton wondered aloud why there wasn't a vaccine for HIV, even though the virus had been discovered years before. That prompted a discussion about the possibility of a vaccine research center, Fauci said.

"And you said you would do something about it," he recalled. "I actually thought you were just trying to be nice to us. But to our great surprise, in May of 1997, you announced at a commencement address at Morgan State that you actually were going to support the building of a vaccine research center."

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Fauci has been the subject of attacks by conservative politicians. For example, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, has called for Fauci to be fired as he and other GOP senators argue Fauci lied to congressional lawmakers when the doctor rejected accusations that the NIH funded "gain of function" research at a Wuhan, China, virology lab.

Clinton said he's amazed to see Fauci still standing after all he's been through.

"I was always grateful to you for your hard work, and never more grateful than to see you try to talk common sense in the middle of nonsense. You have been great," he said.

Clinton said the National Institutes of Health had a broad base of bipartisan support during his administration, even though he held office in polarized times.

"One of the reasons the NIH accomplished as much as it did is that so many people with extraordinary talent and dedication chose to work there," he said.

The event on Tuesday also highlighted the work of the Human Genome Project, a research program that aimed for "the complete mapping and understanding of all the genes of human beings," according to the National Human Genome Research Institute.

Clinton said he spent $3 billion of taxpayer money on the effort to map the human genome.

"And I tell everybody that it's the best 3 billion dollars I ever spent in my life," said Clinton, who commented that it had an "incalculable impact on the future prospects of life."

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