Dr. Anthony Fauci, the most recognized scientist in America, is planning to retire soon. The nation’s disease expert said that he would leave his federal position by the end of the first term of President Joe Biden. The 81-year old federal expert has served the nation for more than five decades, under seven presidents.
On Monday, Dr. Anthony Fauci was interviewed by POLITICO and spoke on wide-ranging topics including his resignation. He mentioned his legacy, which began with research on AIDS, the response to the COVID-19 pandemic which is still ongoing and his wish to calm the politicization that was exacerbated by the pandemic.
Dr. Anthony Fauci ruled out staying in his top position till when there is no more COVID-19 as he said that he could be 105 by then. He admitted that we would be living with Covid for a long time to come and that COVID could be around for many more years. He also spoke of retiring when President Joe Biden ended his current term in office.
Dr. Fauci also said that former president Donald Trump and he were related as both of them were New Yorkers as he was born in Brooklyn while Trump was born in Queens. He felt that although they had different ideologies they grew up in the same city and he thought it made them “related to each other.”
He also accepted that his Covid policies had created fissures and that the Republicans would try to come after him, if they gained a majority in the House or the Senate after the midterms, especially if he was still on the job and less if he was not.
Dr. Fauci also said that he wanted his legacy to be the work he did in 1984 on HIV/AIDS. When he was the NIAD director, he received bipartisan support for his work on this infectious disease and said that the founding of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) might he the “most impactful thing” he has achieved in his career than spanned more than 50 years.
In his interview with the news outlet in his office on the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, Maryland, Dr. Anthony Fauci also said that he had “picked the best people in the country, if not the world” who would continue with his “vision” and that he did not need to be there for HIV as they had “enough good people to carry it on.”
Dr. Fauci and Sen. Rand Paul continue to trade insults on COVID-19
