The White House chief medical adviser says he doesn't expect being in the job "at the end of the first term of President Biden, which is January 2025. Somehow, that got interpreted that it's announcing my retirement," Fauci said.
Fauci, who became the face of the United States’s efforts to curb the COVID-19 pandemic, told Politico that he is not basing his decision on when COVID-19 will be fully contained.
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“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,” Fauci said when asked whether he would remain in his role out of a sense of obligation.
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He’s not. But his examination that we’ll live with Covid-19 for many years to come, is a startling admission from the longtime infectious disease expert who said the country could flatten the curve and achieve herd immunity, first through social distancing and then vaccination.
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The ever-changing, highly infectious coronavirus, which no country has triumphed against, upended those plans. With his career spiraling down, Fauci wants to help fix the national bonds that the pandemic destroyed and tamp down the partisan polarization that has turned him, and science itself, into a dubious figure. He’s even finding his commonalities with former President Donald Trump, his nemesis in the pandemic’s first year.
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“We developed an interesting relationship,” said the Brooklyn-born Fauci. “Two guys from New York, different in their opinions and their ideology, but still, two guys who grew up in the same environments of this city. I think that we are related to each other in that regard.”
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In May, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director told CNN’s Jim Acosta he would not persist in his role if former President Donald Trump were to return for a second presidential term.
“Uh, well, no,” Fauci replied with a chuckle.
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“If you look at the history of what the response was during the [Trump] administration, I think, you know, at best, you could say it wasn’t optimal,” Fauci replied. “I think just history will speak for itself about that. I don’t need to make any further comment on that, Jim. It’s not productive.”
In March, Fauci also indicated at retirement, saying, “I can't stay at this job forever. Unless my staff is going to find me slumped over my desk one day. I'd rather not do that.”
Fauci has been a public health expert in various capacities for more than 50 years and has advised every president since Ronald Reagan.
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