She’s changing Dr. Fauci. Meet Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo : Photographs

Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo was a transparent and down-to-earth explainer of what was taking place throughout the pandemic, usually on CNN and different networks. She’s pictured right here at a COVID press convention in April 2020.

Andrea Mabry /UAB

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Andrea Mabry /UAB

Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo was a transparent and down-to-earth explainer of what was taking place throughout the pandemic, usually on CNN and different networks. She’s pictured right here at a COVID press convention in April 2020.

Andrea Mabry /UAB

This week, the Nationwide Institutes of Well being introduced who can be changing Dr. Anthony Fauci as the top of its infectious illness group: Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, an HIV professional who involves the job from the College of Alabama at Birmingham.

Fauci served virtually 40 years as the top of the Nationwide Institute of Allergic reactions and Infectious Ailments, and he was each beloved and vilified within the function. He retired in December, after holding the submit since 1984.

Marrazzo, a Harvard-educated doctor and epidemiologist in her early 60s, was incessantly on tv information as an professional throughout the peak of the COVID pandemic. She can be taking over an enormous job — operating an institute with a $6.3 billion annual price range.

Dr. Carlos del Rio, a professor at Emory College and president of the Infectious Ailments Society of America, says Fauci and Marrazzo have a number of issues in frequent. “They’re each of Italian descent, they’re each HIV physicians, and so they’re each very good communicators,” del Rio says.

However Marrazzo is actually her personal individual, he provides. She has placing white curls and vibrant blue glasses, and he or she delivered her coronavirus cautions in a transparent, down-to-earth means, with dashes of humor. Del Rio says he counts her as a good friend, and he is thrilled with the information of her NIH appointment. “I like Dr. Fauci, he is nice. However on the similar time, we have to recover from it. The Fauci period’s over, now it is the Marrazzo period,” del Rio says.

Jeanne Marrazzo grew up in Pennsylvania close to Scranton. She was valedictorian of her highschool class and went to Harvard for undergrad, after which medical college at Thomas Jefferson College in Philadelphia.

Earlier than she took her present job – operating the Division of Infectious Ailments on the College of Alabama at Birmingham – she spent years as a professor on the College of Washington. For Jennifer Balkus, an epidemiologist with the general public well being division of Seattle and King County, Marrazzo was a key mentor and one of many individuals who judged her dissertation.

“She finds these methods to encourage and push and foster development and improvement in folks, however on the similar time permitting them to be the individual that they need and want and must be,” Balkus explains. “She brings her true self to areas, and invitations folks into her life.”

One other good friend and colleague, Sharon Hillier, an OB-GYN professor on the College of Pittsburgh, says the world of infectious illnesses is especially difficult now: “A variety of infections that used to solely be discovered extra within the tropics transferring into the subtropics as local weather has modified, a burgeoning epidemic of sexually transmitted infections, and world well being, together with HIV, however not simply HIV.”

Hillier says Marrazzo has a large breadth of experience that can serve her effectively when she takes up her place at NIH within the fall. “I believe what’s outstanding about her is just not that she’s recognized in a singular space, however that she’s broadly revered in a broad vary of areas,” Hillier says. Along with HIV and different sexually transmitted infections, Marrazzo is an professional in infections brought on by anaerobic micro organism, an professional on ladies’s well being and he or she grew to become an professional on COVID, Hillier says. “She’s referred to as an beautiful clinician. She’s referred to as an beautiful instructor.”

Hillier worries slightly for her good friend, noting all of the assaults Fauci confronted. “No one’s going to be universally beloved,” she says. And she or he’s grateful Marrazzo is up for the problem.

Mates describe Marrazzo as a straight shooter, a form colleague, with an incredible chortle who loves going out for dinner. She’s brazenly homosexual and, Balkus says, Marrazzo is a joyful and enjoyable presence at an annual convention they each attend. “A part of the assembly culminates in a gala dance, and Jeannie is all the time, all the time on the dance ground,” she says.

Marrazzo is considered one of three ladies who’ve just lately been named to distinguished roles overseeing U.S. well being coverage. Dr. Mandy Cohen leads the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, who leads the Nationwide Most cancers Institute, has been tapped to go up all of NIH, succeeding Dr. Francis Collins. However the Senate listening to on Bertagnolli is on maintain, as Sen. Bernie Sanders makes use of it as a bargaining chip with the White Home over drug costs.

Marrazzo doesn’t require senate approval to imagine her function.