Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, who rose to household name status during the COVID-19 pandemic, has announced he plans to step down as Chief Medical Advisor to President Joe Biden and as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
The 81-year-old shared the news on Monday and confirmed he will exit both positions in December.
"While I am moving on from my current positions, I am not retiring," Dr. Fauci said in a statement, per NBC News. "After more than 50 years of government service, I plan to pursue the next phase of my career while I still have so much energy and passion for my field."
While he didn’t offer many more details about his “next phase,” the doctor sai he wants to use everything he’s learned during his time at NIAID to “continue to advance science and public health and to inspire and mentor the next generation of scientific leaders as they help prepare the world to face future infectious disease threats.”
Dr. Fauci previously indicated he wouldn’t step down from his positions in the government until the end of Biden’s term in January 2025.
Advising seven presidents on HIV/AIDS and working on the U.S. response to other health crises including Ebola and Zika, Dr. Fauci first joined NIAID in 1968. He has been the director of the institute since 1984, and began his role as Chief Medical Advisor in January 2021. In a statement, Biden described Fauci as “a dedicated public servant, and a steady hand with wisdom and insight honed over decades at the forefront of some of our most dangerous and challenging public health crises."
Earlier this year, Fauci hinted he was heading toward retirement. “I have said that I would stay in what I’m doing until we get out of the pandemic phase and I think we might be there already, if we can stay in this,” he said in March. “I can’t stay at this job forever. Unless my staff is gonna find me slumped over my desk one day. I’d rather not do that.”
As one of the top U.S. health officials and a prominent member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, Dr. Fauci became a divisive figure in politics. While he initially worked alongside Donald Trump’s administration at the start of the pandemic in 2020, he was frequently a target of Republican lawmakers and supporters, as well as the subject of numerous far-right conspiracy theories.
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