President Joe Biden’s Chief Medical Adviser Anthony Fauci on Monday announced plans to step down in December after more than 50 years of government service and two years as the face of the federal government’s response to the once-in-a-lifetime COVID-19 pandemic.
Fauci, who had earlier announced plans to step down from government service but provided more specific timing Monday, has led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for 38 years, steering the agency through outbreaks as varied as HIV/AIDS, Zika, Ebola, and most recently COVID-19 and monkeypox.
He has been both lionized and targeted for his leadership, facing backlash from advocates during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and from anti-vaccine advocates and critics of controversial research during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
