Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, there's one name that rose to the forefront that suddenly everybody in America knew: Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He's been in the position since 1984, but find me one person who knew who he was before 2020 - you can't! We had no reason to know what he did!

But now, obviously, things are different, and Fauci quickly became one of the most trusted voices on the subject of COVID. And now, he's going to speak right here in Missoula, at the University of Montana... from a distance, of course.

On February 17th, Dr. Fauci will be the headlining speaker of the 2021 Mansfield Lecture, which will take place over Zoom. Sure, it's a little different then how the lecture would usually go, but if anybody is in favor of doing it virtually and without an in-person audience, I'm betting it's Fauci.

The lecture will act as a fireside chat with a Q&A session, and he'll speak about the pandemic, vaccines, what everything we've learned from COVID means for the future, and more.

And this isn't just for students - everybody is free to register for the event, which will be held at noon to make it easier for K-12 schools to join in. You can register at the Mansfield Center's page on UM's website, and you'll be sent a link to the Zoom call in January after you do.

Think you'll be checking this out? So much can change over the course of the next three months, it'll be fascinating to see what the nation's leading disease expert has to say about the state of COVID by then.

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