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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the long-serving head of the National Institute of Allergy And Infectious Diseases who became the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, indicated on Friday that he may be considering stepping down.
Fauci, who was named chief medical adviser to the administration by President Joe Biden, made his remarks amid dramatically reduced COVID illnesses and deaths as the pandemic finally appears to be significantly waning.
“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,” the country’s top immunologist said on Friday’s episode of the ABC News podcast Start Here.
“If we can stay in this, then we’re at a point where I feel that we are done with this, but I don’t have any plans right now to go away, but you never know,” he continued.
Asked by ABC’s Brad Mielke if he had thought about retiring, Fauci admitted that he had.
“I certainly have, because I have to do it sometime. I can’t stay at this job forever. Unless my staff is going to find me slumped over my desk one day. I’d rather not do that,” he added.
The Washington Examiner adds:
At 81 years old, Fauci has served as a public health expert in various capacities for more than 50 years and has advised every president since Ronald Reagan. He currently holds the post of chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden and has been a public fixture since the pandemic began more than two years ago. …
Fauci only hinted at his retirement, stopping short of saying when his time in the White House and as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases would come to an end. However, his comments come shortly after an announcement from Biden that his COVID-19 response coordinator, Jeff Zients, would be stepping down next month to be replaced by Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health.
Being the face of the county’s pandemic response has earned Fauci both praise and criticism, the latter mostly from Republicans. In fact, Fauci has expressed concerns at what may happen if the GOP regains control of Congress following the November midterms.
“It’s Benghazi hearings all over again,” he told the Washington Post this week, noting that several GOP lawmakers have promised investigative hearings into Fauci’s agency, including reports that it may have funded risky gain of function research at a Chinese lab in Wuhan where some believe COVID-19 was created and then somehow escaped.
“They’ll try to beat me up in public, and there’ll be nothing there,” Fauci predicted.
“But it will distract me from doing my job, the way it’s doing right now,” Fauci said. He claimed current GOP efforts “are taking away from our effort of fighting this outbreak.”
Claiming that Republicans’ “distortion of reality is stunning,” he said his agency’s legislative staffers are “probably spending 40, 50 percent of their time” on responses to information requests.
“It is just an overwhelming burden, asking for information that’s driven by conspiracy,” Fauci said.
One Republican who has often sparred with Fauci and believes that he should be criminally charged is Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a physician himself who is convinced that NIAID chief lied to Congress about his agency’s research funding.
Last week, Paul introduced legislation that would eliminate Fauci’s position altogether and spread it out of three new directors as a means of distributing power.
In addition to Paul, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has also vowed to investigate Fauci and his agency.
“If the American people put us back in charge, we are definitely going to do this,” Jordan told Fox News, pledging to get to the bottom of the origins of COVID as well.
