On Monday, Dr. Anthony Fauci announced that he will be stepping down as the president’s top medical adviser and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases this December.
“I will be leaving these positions in December of this year to pursue the next chapter of my career,” said Fauci, who has experienced increasingly worse disapproval ratings from the American people since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic due to his push for continued lockdowns and for his flipflopping on issues like the efficacy of masks.
“It has been the honor of a lifetime to have led the NIAID, an extraordinary institution, for so many years and through so many scientific and public health challenges,” he continued. “I am very proud of our many accomplishments. I have worked with – and learned from – countless talented and dedicated people in my own laboratory, at NIAID, at NIH and beyond. To them I express my abiding respect and gratitude.”
Starting mid-2021, polls began to show that the majority of Americans thought Fauci should resign. According to a Hill-HarrisX poll conducted in late October 2021, 52 percent of registered voters felt Fauci should resign.
In response to Fauci’s decision to listen to the American people and resign, President Biden released a statement praising Fauci’s work in the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When it came time to build a team to lead our COVID-19 response – in fact, in one of my first calls as President-elect – I immediately asked Dr. Fauci to extend his service as my Chief Medical Advisor to deal with the COVID-19 crisis our nation faced,” Biden said. “In that role, I’ve been able to call him at any hour of the day for his advice as we’ve tackled this once-in-a-generation pandemic. His commitment to the work is unwavering, and he does it with an unparalleled spirit, energy, and scientific integrity.”
“Because of Dr. Fauci’s many contributions to public health, lives here in the United States and around the world have been saved,” Biden added. “As he
