Dr. Anthony Fauci, Face of the US COVID Response, Is Stepping Down

Dr. Anthony Fauci is retiring from his current positions at the end of the year, he announced Monday.

Fauci has served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984. He helped lead the U.S. public health response to the AIDS crisis and, in 2020, quickly became the most visible public health official during the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than a million Americans over the past two and a half years. 

Though he fell out of favor with former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden named him chief medical advisor to the president in January 2021. Fauci said previously that he would “almost certainly” retire by the next presidential inauguration, but he said in a statement Monday he would leave in December “to pursue the next chapter of my career.”

Fauci, 81, insisted he is not retiring altogether and said that he’s leaving “to pursue the next phase of my career while I still have so much energy and passion for my field.” But in an interview with the Washington Post, Fauci said that he didn’t “want to be here so long that I get to the point where I lose a step.”

As the face of the COVID response and a leading advocate for vaccines, Fauci has been a frequent target of conservatives and congressional Republicans, who have vowed to investigate him if they retake control of Congress. Last year, a West Virginia man was sentenced to three years in prison for sending Fauci death threats. 

In a statement, Biden called Fauci a “dedicated public servant” and said he “has touched all Americans’ lives with his work.” 

“Because of Dr. Fauci’s many contributions to public health, lives here in the United States and around the world have been saved,” Biden said. “The United States of America is stronger, more resilient, and healthier because of him.”

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