Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chief Physician to the President of the United States, said he will retire by the end of President Biden’s term, according to a new report released Monday. Politico reported Monday that Fauci said he would retire by the end of Biden’s term after more than five decades of federal service under seven different presidential administrations. The 81-year-old has been director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984, Reuters reported. He became the face of the US government’s policies regarding efforts to mitigate the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Fox News Digital reached out to NIAID for additional comment on Monday.
FAUCI ADMITS COVID-19 VACCINES DO NOT PROTECT ‘TOO WELL’ AGAINST INFECTION Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, answers questions from Sen. Rand Paul during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on July 20, 2021. ( (Photo by J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)) Fauci has worked for more than 50 years in American public health, advising every president since Reagan. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Fauci was a leading figure on both Trump’s and Biden’s coronavirus response teams. Fauci has been a regular guest on cable news, primetime television, late-night shows and podcasts offering his medical advice throughout the pandemic. Over time, he became a politically divisive figure on the left and right on issues such as masks and lockdown policies. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, attends a meeting with members of the White House Covid-19 Response Team at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, U.S., on Tuesday, January 4, 2022. (Ting Shen/ Bloomberg via Getty Images) He famously sparred with Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul in committee hearings on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and whether his department at the National Institutes of Health funded profit-of-function research. In his new interview with Politico in his office on the National Institutes of Health Campus in Bethesda, Maryland, Fauci acknowledged that the country — and the world — will be living with the coronavirus for some time. “We’re in a pattern now. If someone says, ‘You’re going to leave when we have no more Covid,’ then I’ll be 105. I think we’ll live with that,” he said. saying the goal would be to make a once-a-year vaccine for COVID-19 like the flu, while acknowledging that efforts so far have been hampered by the emergence of new variants that sometimes become dominant within weeks.
“What we have right now, I think we’re pretty much at a steady state,” he said. Fauci also responded to calls by Republicans in Congress to investigate his leadership and the COVID-19 response should the GOP regain a majority in one or both houses in this year’s midterm elections. Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr. Anthony Fauci. (Getty Images) “They’re going to try to come after me anyway. I mean, probably less if I’m not at work,” Fauci said. “I don’t factor that into my career decision.” “I don’t think they can say anything about science,” he added. “If that’s what you want to investigate, be my guest. I tell someone it’s important to follow fundamental good public health practices – what are you going to investigate about that?” The Biden administration’s vaccine or testing requirements and mask mandates have been struck down by federal courts, and many Republicans are running on platforms this year opposing the lockdown measures. Fauci also commented on his notoriously contentious relationship with Trump. “We developed an interesting relationship,” Fauci, who was born in Brooklyn, told Politico. “Two guys from New York, different in their views and ideology, but still, two guys who grew up in the same environments of this city. I think we’re related in that way.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Fauci became director of NIAID in 1984 at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in America. The majority of his research over the past four decades has sought to diagnose, treat and prevent HIV/Aids, tuberculosis, Ebola, malaria and other infectious diseases. Fauci advised President George W. Bush to sign the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), funding $90 billion for HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention and research worldwide. In 2002, Bush awarded Fauci the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Danielle Wallace is a reporter for Fox News Digital covering politics, crime, police and more. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @danimwallace.