Fauci to step down by end of Biden’s first term as US president

Anthony Fauci, the head of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who became the face of America’s coronavirus pandemic response, is to step down from his role by January 2025, he has confirmed.

The man nicknamed “America’s doctor” told Politico he would stand down by the end of Joe Biden’s first term as president. He confirmed to the Financial Times he intended to pursue “other professional pursuits” when he does so.

Fauci, who has led NIAID for nearly 40 years, rose to international prominence during the pandemic, winning fans with frequent appearances in the media and at the White House podium. But he also became a lightning rod for political disagreements over the best way to deal with the virus, coming under attack from conservatives for his stances on mask-wearing and vaccinations.

Fauci said: “I will leave my NIH [the National Institutes of Health — the parent organisation of NIAID] position some time before the end of Biden’s first term, which is January 2025.”

He told Politico: “If somebody says, ‘You’ll leave when we don’t have Covid any more,’ then I will be 105. I think we’re going to be living with this.”

The 81-year-old Fauci has served as NIAID director under seven presidents, having first been appointed in 1984 by Ronald Reagan.

Until Covid-19, he proved popular with both Democratic and Republican presidents. The older George Bush described Fauci as one of his heroes, while his son George W Bush gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the US’s highest civilian honour — for his work helping to set up the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The state department says that programme has so far helped save 21mn lives.

During the pandemic his role became more controversial.

After an initial period when Donald Trump took the disease seriously and urged Americans to stay at home, the former president soon began to insist that Covid-19 was largely harmless. The two clashed in public and would sometimes go weeks without speaking.

Fauci told Politico however that they had been able to relate to each other thanks to their similar upbringings in New York.

Fauci has also been the subject of criticism from Republican members of Congress, who have attacked him for his stance not only on the importance of wearing masks and getting vaccinated, but also his insistence that the disease probably did not originate in a Chinese laboratory.

He told the FT last year about his concerns over how divided America had become over how to respond to the virus, but said he would stay until the virus had been “crushed”.

Since then however new variants have emerged that are better at escaping antibodies from vaccines and previous infection. Fauci said in February the country was entering a phase when individuals, rather than the federal government, would be best placed to make their own decisions about avoiding infection.

Fauci was given an extra role as the president’s chief medical adviser when Biden took office. He told the FT he would be standing aside from that role as well when he leaves NIAID.