Dr Anthony Fauci, the US’s top infectious disease expert, has revealed he will step down from his post before the end of President Joe Biden’s first term.
‘I have always said that sometime in the reasonable future, I would be stepping down,’ Fauci told NBC News on Monday.
‘Thus sometime between now and then I very likely will step down and move on to the next phase in my professional career, whatever that may be.’
Fauci added that ‘no decision has been made’ about exactly when he will retire, but that the end of Biden’s term serves as a marker for planning his retirement.
Biden’s current term ends in January 2025.
Fauci, who is Biden’s top coronavirus adviser, in a Politico story published on Monday said he did not plan on staying in his role until the virus is eradicated because ‘I think we’re going to be living with this’ for years.
The 81-year-old director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has served more than five decades in public service under seven presidents beginning with Ronald Reagan.
Fauci became a household name during the Trump administration when he provided frequent updates on the federal government’s fight against the coronavirus. Fauci and then-President Donald Trump often disagreed on messaging around the Covid-19 pandemic.
Asked what he wants his legacy to be, Fauci did not say the Covid-19 response. Instead, he pointed to his work around HIV and AIDS that led him to the NIAID director position in 1984 and into the infectious disease field.
Founding the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief under George W Bush ‘may be the most impactful thing I have done in my career’, Fauci told Politico. The program has saved an estimated 21million lives worldwide, according to the State Department.
Fauci also helped lead the federal government’s response to the Ebola, Zika virus and anthrax scares.
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