Ian Patrick, FISM News
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Chief Medical Advisor to the President, said he will retire from his White House position before the end of President Joe Biden’s current term.
Fauci, who is also the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), spoke with Politico about his career and why he made the choice to leave.
“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 if he is still working in the White House role out of an obligation. He even went as far as to say that “right now, I think we’re almost at a steady state.”
Such an admission is still shocking coming from someone who said as recently as April that “the world is still in a pandemic,” while encouraging Americans to make calculated risks for themselves concerning potential exposure to COVID-19.
Fauci has previously come under fire for position reversals, and for taking a hard stance on keeping and reinstating pandemic restrictions. Republicans especially derided him for these reasons, and he is aware that the upcoming midterms could result in a GOP majority in Congress.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R.-Colo., shared her thoughts on Fauci’s retirement announcement on Twitter.
Fauci thinks he's just going to retire and move on with his life.
Not on my watch. He belongs in jail.
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) July 18, 2022
Fauci denied Boebert’s claim that he plans to retire in an attempt to avoid potential prosecution by Congress, while still acknowledging the clear connection.
“They’re going to try and come after me, anyway. I mean, probably less so if I’m not in the job,” Fauci said, referring to Congressional Republicans. He further claimed that this isn’t “a consideration in my career decision.”
Fauci doesn’t seem scared by the possibility of investigations. He said it would be difficult for investigators to “say anything about the science.”
As far as vaccinations are concerned, Fauci hinted that COVID-19 would likely become endemic. He suggested the possibility of “a once-a-year boost, like [the] flu.” Still, he claimed that vaccinations are necessary, as we are “not exactly in a lull.”
CDC data shows that the daily average of COVID cases is more than 122,000, while the daily average of deaths linked to COVID is more than 300. These numbers reflect a slight upwards trend compared to recent weeks but are much less than when the U.S. was dealing with more than 800,000 daily cases and more than 2,700 deaths at the height of Omicron.
Speaking of Omicron, Fauci said that the emergence of future variants makes vaccination “not impossible, but more difficult” as scientists and pathologists try to predict the next dominant strain.
Fauci’s biggest issue now, however, is whether or not anybody is actually listening to him anymore.
“It’s becoming more and more difficult to get people to listen because even the people who are compliant want this behind them,” he said.
“What I try to convince them [of], with my communication method, is we’re not asking you to dramatically alter your lifestyle. We’re not asking you to really interfere with what you do with your life. We’re just asking you to consider some simple, doable mitigation methods.”
Still, Fauci wants the coronavirus response to be his legacy. “I don’t think there is anything else that I, Tony Fauci, can do except leave behind an institution where I have picked the best people in the country, if not the world, who will continue my vision,” he said.