Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert who has seen the United States suffer from the worst coronary pandemic, is poised to end his career for decades in public service early in -2025.
“By the end of [President Joe Biden’s] first term, I will likely (retire),” Fauci told CNN on Monday, adding: “I’ve been saying this for a long time.”
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert who saw the United States through the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, will likely retire at the end of President Joe Biden’s first term in office Currently serving as both the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and chief medical advisor to the president, Dr. Fauci has spent more than half a century in public health The statement came soon after Politico published a wide-ranging interview with the 81-year-old doctor, in which he spoke at length about how he hopes to be remembered when he retires Fauci told Politico creating the international HIV/AIDS program known as PEPFAR – the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief – might be “the most impactful thing I have done in my career”
The statement came shortly after Politico published an extensive interview with the 81-year-old doctor, in which he spoke at length about how he hopes to be remembered when he retires – although he did not say specifically when it might be. On the same subject : What Trump took from us.
He, however, acknowledged that he can’t wait to retire until the coronavirus is destroyed – “then I’ll be 105,” jokes to the outlet – because the virus is unlikely to disappear completely.
“I think we will be living with this,” Fauci told Politico, adding about how the country will manage the disease through vaccination: “I think, though I’m not sure, over the next cycle or so. , we will be getting a boost once a year, like the flu. ”
Although there is a lot of uncertainty about the ever-evolving iterations of the virus, Fauci knows a thing or two about infectious diseases.
Currently serving as both the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and as the president’s chief medical adviser, Fauci has spent more than half a century in public health. He has served as a health consultant to every U.S. president since Ronald Reagan; was at the forefront of the fight against the HIV / AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from George W. Bush in 2008.
Fauci told Politico that his work with the younger President Bush in creating the international HIV / AIDS program known as PEPFAR – the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief – could be ” the most impactful thing I’ve done in my career, ”he said while being vaccinated for the disease may be a long way off, feeling confident that he will leave his job in good hands.
“I don’t have to be there for HIV, because we have enough good people who can carry it,” he said in part.
While Fauci has long led the nation’s response to dangerous infectious diseases, he has gained a new kind of fame – or perhaps, infamy – under President Donald Trump amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Fauci, who served as an advisor to Trump’s White House Coronavirus Task Force, was often seen in the background of Trump’s briefings on COVID-19, which became increasingly rare in failing days of administration. Fauci also had the unenviable task of correcting misleading statements by Trump and other administration officials, leading to friction between him and the White House.
The renowned immunologist has become more willing to criticize the previous administration than when President Joe Biden took office, he told the New York Times last November while deciding he would not “come out proactively and offers my contradiction of what President Trump was at the time. ] said, “he thought it important to correct certain statements for the sake of his own integrity.
Fauci himself was – and to some extent still is – a primary target of misinformation and conspiracy theories, particularly among supporters of the former president, who openly thought about Fauci’s dismissal after the the two disagreed publicly on aspects of the coronavirus pandemic.
Fauci has been accused of authorizing a grant that was used in a Wuhan lab to research the gain of function that some GOP lawmakers claimed led to SARS-CoV-2 being removed from the lab (it was not); that he and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg agreed to create a narrative early in the pandemic (not so), and that Fauci lied to the American public about the effectiveness of masks in early 2020 (he didn’t).
Fauci still acknowledges that he could be the target of political anger as Republicans try to gain control of the House and Senate in midterms this year, and even later in the election. next presidential election.
“They will try to follow me, anyway. I mean, probably less so if I’m not at work, “he told Politico, adding:” I don’t consider that in my career decision. “
