Fauci clarifies that he will not retire, but will leave current NIAID director position

Top doctor Anthony Fauci on Tuesday set the record straight after speculation surfaced earlier this week over whether he would be retiring following a years-long global pandemic and said he has no such plans.

“I’m not going to retire. No, no, I’m not going to retire,” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and chief medical advisor to the President told The Hill. “I may step down from my current position at some time.”

Questions surfaced over Fauci’s retirement after Politico published an interview during which the disease specialist was reported to be “leaving by the end of President Joe Biden’s term.”

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Fauci said he was asked if he would keep working for the federal government should Donald Trump, who is expected to announce his candidacy this year, wins the White House again. 

“I said a very innocent but true thing. I said whether it’s Donald Trump or it’s Joe Biden’s second term, I don’t intend to be in my current position in January of 2025,” he told The Hill during a Tuesday event. “What happens between now and then I have not decided, but the one thing I do know is that I have other things that I want to do in a professional way that I want to have the capability — while I still have the energy and the passion to do them.”

Fauci has served in his role as chief of the NIAID for nearly four decades, taking up the director position in 1984. 

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He garnered global attention during the coronavirus pandemic and became a divisive figure nationally as some Americans grew frustrated over COVID-related mandates aimed to curb the spread of the virus, like masking regulations and business closures at the onslaught of the pandemic. 

Fauci told Politico that he would like to help repair the widespread partisan polarization that has divided the nation and politicized science. 

Despite plans to leave the director role with the NIAID, he said he is prepared for partisan attacks that will likely be levied his way by Republican candidates as Americans head to the polls again this fall.

“They’re going to try and come after me, anyway. I mean, probably less so if I’m not in the job,” he told Politico.

But added, “I don’t make that a consideration in my career decision.”