Roughly a month after he first announced that he would leave the federal government, Dr. Anthony Fauci made it official Monday.
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases as well as the chief medical advisor to the president, announced his intentions in a statement posted Monday on the NIAID website.
“I am announcing today that I will be stepping down from the positions of Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and Chief of the NIAID Laboratory of Immunoregulation, as well as the position of Chief Medical Advisor to President Joe Biden. I will be leaving these positions in December of this year to pursue the next chapter of my career,” Fauci said in the statement.
“I am very proud of our many accomplishments,” Fauci, whose leadership of the efforts to fight COVID-19 has come under intense criticism, said in the statement.
Fauci, 81, said he will remain active.
“While I am moving on from my current positions, I am not retiring. 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. I want to use what I have learned as NIAID Director 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,” he said.
In July, Fauci broached the subject of leaving the federal government in an interview with Politico.
“I don’t think there is anything else that I, Tony Fauci, can do except leave behind an institution where I have picked the best people in the country, if not the world, who will continue my vision,” he said.
“We’re in a pattern now. If somebody says, ‘You’ll leave when we don’t have Covid anymore,’ then I will be 105. I think we’re going to be living with this,” he said then.
Should Republicans investigate Fauci if they gain control of Congress?
In that interview, Fauci said if he stayed, he expected a contentious year if Republicans, with whom he has sparred, gain a majority in either house of Congress.
“They’re going to try and come after me, anyway. I mean, probably less so if I’m not in the job,” he said. “I don’t make that a consideration in my career decision.”
But on Monday, many commented that Fauci was doing exactly that.
Dr. Fauci announces he’s stepping down in December. Fauci’s running scared with Republicans taking control of the House, at minimum, next year. Fauci should face criminal charges for lying to congress about gain of function research and covid.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) August 22, 2022
FAUCI HAS RESIGNED
Mere months before expected GOP victories and expected congressional investigations of Fauci.https://t.co/6vmW79hbIY
— Jordan Schachtel @ dossier.substack.com (@JordanSchachtel) August 22, 2022
BREAKING: Dr. Fauci plans to step down in December…
Isn’t it interesting he will abruptly resign just before @RandPaul and Republicans get a chance to commence their investigations after the midterm elections? ? pic.twitter.com/CsWMfiDcUC
— Young Americans for Liberty (@YALiberty) August 22, 2022
Sociopathic liar and political hack Fauci is making a run for it before Republicans can take over the House https://t.co/90utmxYYxm
— Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) August 22, 2022
A few days after the interview saying he would leave, Fauci added a definite maybe to his plans, according to The Hill.
“What happens between now and then I have not decided, but the one thing I do know is that I have other things that I want to do in a professional way that I want to have the capability — while I still have the energy and the passion to do them,” Fauci said.
In an interview this month with Dr. Larry Corey, president and former director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Institute in Seattle, Fauci described himself as the personification of science.
“What I symbolize in an era of the normalization of untruths and lies and all the things you’re seeing going on in society from Jan. 6 to everything else that goes on, people are craving for consistency, for integrity, for truth, and for people caring about people,” Fauci said.
