Fauci, who is Biden’s chief medical adviser and served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for decades, said he does not currently have a specific retirement date in mind, nor has he begun the retirement process.
“I’ve been saying this for a long time,” Fauci said of his plans to leave government before the end of Biden’s current term, which expires in January 2025.
“By the time we get to the end of Biden’s first term, I will very likely (retire),” Fauci said.
Fauci told CNN’s “This Hour” later Monday that while his recent comments about retirement were interpreted as announcing a retirement plan, he simply meant “that it’s extremely unlikely — in fact, certainly — that he won’t be here after January 2025.”
Fauci said he feels he has put a good system in place at NIAID to facilitate a smooth transition at the agency, and he wants to pursue other career opportunities after he eventually leaves.
“Anyone who has any influence in my institute, I personally select. So this is something I’ve been working on for four decades now. So we have a good system,” Fauci told CNN’s Kate Baldwin. “Obviously you can’t go on forever. I want to do other things in my career even though I am quite old. I have the energy and passion to continue wanting to pursue other aspects of my professional career and will be doing so for some time. I’m not sure exactly when, but I don’t see myself being in this job to the point where I can’t do anything else after that.”
At 81, Fauci has served more than five decades under seven presidents, advising every US president since Ronald Reagan.
During his time as director of NIAID, Fauci helped lead the federal public health response to the HIV/AIDS crisis, Ebola, the Zika virus and anthrax scares. But he was thrust into the national spotlight at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, emerging as a key public health voice during the Trump administration. Fauci and then-President Donald Trump publicly disagreed on how to approach the pandemic, what the right message was to the American people and how to balance reopening with preventing further contagion. Through it all, Trump insisted he respected Fauci but disagreed with his approach. But at a low point in their relationship, Trump suggested he was considering firing the doctor. Attacks by Trump allies have led to increased security for Fauci. In 2020, Fauci told CNN’s Sanjay Gupta that he needed to get security protection after his family received death threats and harassment.
Fauci told “This Hour” on Monday that political pressure did not influence his decision to ultimately leave office.
“It has nothing to do with pressure, nothing to do with all the other nonsense you hear about, all the spikes and slings and arrows. It has no effect on me,” he said.
Fauci said last November that he expected to leave his role only when the Covid-19 epidemic was “in the rearview mirror”.
“I am the director of the institute, which is now very important in the basic research leading to the drugs that will now have an important impact in the treatment of Covid-19. That’s what I do,” Fauci told CBS. Sunday morning.” “So I’m going to keep doing this until this Covid-19 epidemic is in the rearview mirror, no matter what anyone says about me or wants to lie and make up crazy fabrications for political reasons.”
This story was updated with additional developments on Monday.
CNN’s Christina McSouris and Paul LeBlanc contributed to this report.
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