OUR Dr. Anthony Fauci who, during his tenure, advised him seven presidents and spent more half a century at the National Institutes of Healthleave the government before the end of the year.

As he testified, he intended to leave public service in December in order to “Stay tuned for the next chapter» his career. He will leave his post as chief medical adviser to President Biden and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseaseswhich he led for 38 years.

The 81-year-old Fauci’s announcement was not entirely unexpected. He hinted a long time ago that he was thinking about retiring.

In an interview on Sunday evening, he said that “does not retire in the classical sense”, but will devote himself to travel, writing, and encouraging young people to enter the public service. “As healthy as I am, and as active as I am, and as passionate as I am, I want to do some things that are outside the purview of the federal government,” he said.

He added that he would like to use his experience and knowledge in public health and public services to “inspire the younger generation.”

In his statement, Mr. Biden thanked Dr. Fauci, whom he called “a dedicated civil servant and a firm hand with wisdom and insight“.

The two worked closely together during the global epidemic of this disease. virus Zikawhen Mr. Biden was vice president. “Thanks to Dr. Fauci’s great contribution to public health, lives have been saved here in the United States and around the world,” he said.

Few scholars have had such a large or such lasting impact on public policy. Dr. Fauci joined National Institutes of Health in 1968when he was president Lyndon Johnson. Appointed Head of the Infectious Diseases Department 1984when the AIDS epidemic demanded the most careful attention.

Dr. Fauci has advised every president with Ronald Reagan and then – only seven – and he was extremely skillful in managing the connection of science and politics.

Among his achievements, he said, was cooperation with the president. George W. Kust develop a global program to combat it HIV AIDSknown as PEPFAR, which saved approx. 21 million lives.

Mr. Bush, whose father George W. Bush called Dr. Fauci a “hero” during the 1988 presidential debate, awarded him the award. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008.

Dr. Fauci violently quarreled with the senator Rand PaulRepublican from Kentucky who publicly accused him of lying about his institute-funded research he had done in China. coronavirus.

Dr. Fauci dismissed this idea as “this is some nonsenseand also said that he was not going to go to work for her pharmaceutical industryas some of his critics have condemned.

He added that he considered resigning after M. Trump left the White House but could not refuse Biden’s request to be his medical adviser amid the coronavirus crisis. “So I stayed for a year thinking that the end of the year would be the end of Covid, and as it turns out, that’s not exactly what happened,” he said, emphasizing: “And this is my second year here and I just I realized that there are things I want to do.”

In addition to leading the Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Fauci also heads one immunological laboratory. He stressed that he would also leave this position. He also announced that he had informed Mr. Biden of his decision, and the president was “very kind.”

Dr. Fauci did not give a specific departure date (On December 24, he will turn 82 years old.). He noted that he hopes that by remaining in the fall and early winter, the United States will “closer to life with the coronavirus in a steady state,” although there are no guarantees.

“I am not happy with the fact that we still have 400 deaths per day“, – he noted and commented: “We have to do much better than this. So I don’t think I can say that I’m happy with where we are. But I hope that over the next two months the situation will improve.”

While working on memoirs about this, Dr. Fauci said that he did not yet have a publisher. In an interview last year, he emphasized that he could not sign a contract with a publisher while he was still in government.

During more than five decades as a government scientist, Dr. Fauci led the United States through a series of infectious disease threats. Prior to the coronavirus, he was best known for his work on HIV/AIDS.

And then his presence caused polarization and he was targeted by activists who accused him of responsibility for the death of gays because he didn’t move fast enough to promote new treatments.

Over time, he became friends with many of these activists. One of them, mr. Peter Staley, recalled that “although the image of his bloodied head was on a stick in front of the building of his National Institutes of Health, he never closed the door on us.” He added, “I have never met a more deserving person.”

Dr. Fauci was deeply moved by caring for AIDS patients at a time when almost everyone was dying. In a documentary released National Geography Last year, he recalled walking up to the bedside of an AIDS patient who suddenly didn’t recognize him. The man lost his sight.

When Dr. Fauci tells this story, his voice cracks. The filmmakers asked why it affected him all these years later. He made a pause. “Post Traumatic Stress Syndromehe said, stopping again. “It…”.

Dr. Fauci became widely known in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. His face was found to be decorated sweatshirts, socks and mugs. In a magazine poll People for “the sexiest man in the world” collected more than 28 thousand signatures.

When asked in an interview this year why he has become such a controversial figure, Dr. Fauci pointed to some of Mr. Trump’s aides who he said tried to belittle him by insisting that everything he said was was wrong. He did not directly object to Trump.