NIAID director Anthony Fauci's retirement will leave a gaping hole in the nation's flagship biomedical research agency and tee up a test of whether his successor will be an equally public figure — and as controversial.
Why it matters: Fauci's consistent presence as the public face of the pandemic response over the last two and a half years has been a source of comfort for some Americans while enraging others. What happens in his absence will reveal whether such deep polarization stems more from Fauci or is a function of today's political environment.
