Fauci says he will step down as head of NIAID in December
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Anthony S. Fauci, MD, announced Monday that he will step down as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in December after 38 years in the position.
Fauci, who has advised seven U.S. presidents in his post atop the NIAID, said he will also step down as President Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor, a position he has held since Biden’s inauguration last year.
In a statement, the 81-year-old physician and scientist said he will leave these positions in December “to pursue the next chapter of my career.”
“While I am moving on from my current positions, I am not retiring,” he said. “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.”
The news was not unexpected. Fauci previously said he would retire by the end of Biden’s term.
Biden, who also worked with Fauci as vice president during outbreaks of Zika and Ebola, said he has come to know 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.”
Biden said he used one of his first phone calls as president to ask Fauci to be his chief medical advisor and serve on the White House’s COVID-19 Response Team.
“In that role, I’ve been able to call him at any hour of the day for his advice as we’ve tackled this once-in-a-generation pandemic,” Biden said in a statement. “His commitment to the work is unwavering, and he does it with an unparalleled spirit, energy, and scientific integrity.”
Fauci, who began his tenure as NIAID director in 1984, has advised presidents on emerging health threats from HIV/AIDS to COVID-19 and monkeypox. He still publishes regularly, appearing in the bylines of recent papers in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, Nature and The New England Journal of Medicine.
“It has been the honor of a lifetime to have led the NIAID, an extraordinary institution, for so many years and through so many scientific and public health challenges,” Fauci said. “I am very proud of our many accomplishments. I have worked with — and learned from — countless talented and dedicated people in my own laboratory, at NIAID, at NIH and beyond. To them I express my abiding respect and gratitude.”
Fauci has been the country’s most visible physician during the COVID-19 pandemic and tested positive himself earlier this summer. In July, he said he could not wait out the COVID-19 pandemic to decide about stepping down from the NIAID.
“We’re in a pattern now. If somebody says, ‘You’ll leave when we don’t have COVID anymore,’ then I will be 105,” Fauci told Politico. “I think we’re going to be living with this.”
References:
Owermohle S. Anthony Fauci wants to put Covid’s politicization behind him. Politico. July 18, 2022. Accessed Aug. 22, 2022. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/18/anthony-fauci-interview-covid-00046189.
Statement by Anthony S. Fauci, MD. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/statement-anthony-s-fauci-md. Published Aug. 22, 2022. Accessed Aug. 22, 2022.
Statement from President Joe Biden on the announcement of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s departure from NIAID. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/08/22/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-the-announcement-of-dr-anthony-faucis-departure-from-niaid/. Published Aug. 22, 2022. Accessed Aug. 22, 2022.
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