A little history sperging here: Fauci (and Reagan) moved very slowly to address AIDS. It was treated as a gay disease even though it was a leading cause of death in men ages 25 to 45 for years, surpassed only by accidents (although AIDS was the number one cause of death for this demographic in 1992). Yes, it primarily affected gay men and intravenous drug users, but the scale of death was shockingly high and the disease began to affect non-homosexual demographics by 1990. It was a serious public health problem and it spread via heterosexual transmissions at a rapid pace.
AZT was the only FDA-approved treatment for a while, and it was both very hard to get and it was prescribed in legendary doses, which led to severe side effects. Because it was only one drug, and HIV is a virus, it also led to AZT‐resistant strains. That's why modern treatments for HIV/AIDS use multiple drugs. AZT is still used today, but in smaller doses and not as a first-line treatment.
Fauci was a big public figure in the AIDS epidemic and became the face for the failures of the public health establishment. His ego was a problem then as it was during COVID. He promoted AZT because it was the only proven drug at the time. To be fair to Fauci, the FDA was the one dragging its feet on drug development and approval (Fauci was at the NIAID, a different organization). Fauci was also one of the first people to actually research HIV/AIDS. The FDA moved at a much slower pace back then to approve drugs, if you can believe that. This led to the now-famous "buyers clubs" where people obtained unapproved/hard to acquire drugs for treating HIV/AIDS. The FDA later relaxed the rules and Fauci led better clinical trials at the NIAID in the 90's but, by then, a lot of people died. Larry Kramer famously called Fauci a murderer, although Kramer and Fauci later reconciled.
