Main adviser to the American president, Joe Biden, on the Covid-19, he had become the face of the fight against the pandemic in the United States. The eminent Dr Anthony Fauci announced Monday, August 22, at age 81, that he would leave office in December.
He also explained that he would retire on that date from his post as director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (Niaid), which he had held for thirty-eight years, while specifying that he would not was not yet acting for him to ” to retire “.
In a statement, he said:
I plan to pursue the next phase of my career with all the energy and passion I have left for my field.
President Joe Biden immediately addressed “his deepest thanks” at Dr Fauci for his work. “The United States is stronger, more resilient and healthier because of him”he welcomed in a press release.
Curators’ pet peeve
Mr. Fauci has served under seven different US presidents, starting with Ronald Reagan. “It has been the honor of my life to lead Niaid”he wrote, listing the crises crossed: AIDS epidemic, Ebola virus, Zika virus…
In 2020, this doctor by training, already famous in the world of infectious diseases and the fight against AIDS but then still little known to the general public, was thrown into the limelight by joining the presidential cell on the coronavirus. , when Donald Trump was in power.
His simple, tirelessly repeated messages made him the reassuring figure that America needed. But he, who had always been careful to stay away from politics, gradually became the bane of conservatives, and the favorite target of anti-vaccines, in a context of very strong politicization of the health crisis in the United States.
During a hearing in the Senate, Mr. Fauci accused a Republican elected official of encouraging people making death threats against him.