Fauci Confirms New Post After Stepping Down From Federal Government Role

Dr. Anthony Fauci testifies in front of the U.S. Senate on Sept. 14. The director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who became the face of the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, announces on Aug. 22 that he plans to retire at the end of the year. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the public face of the federal government’s response to COVID-19, is now joining Georgetown University’s faculty starting next month, the college said.

“Dr. Fauci has embodied the Jesuit value of being in service to others throughout his career, and we are grateful to have his expertise, strong leadership, and commitment to guiding the next generation of leaders to meet the pressing issues of our time,” said Georgetown President John DeGioia in a statement.

After serving as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984, Fauci stepped down from his position in December 2022. It came as House Republicans announced they would launch investigations into Fauci and the origins of COVID-19.

Georgetown also named Fauci as a “distinguished university professor,” giving him the “highest professional honor,” according to a news release.

“I ask myself, now, at this stage in my life, what do I have to offer to society?” Fauci said in a news release issued by the university. “I could do more experiments in the lab and have my lab going, but given what I’ve been through, I think what I have to offer is experience and inspiration to the younger generation of students.”

While Fauci was near-universally lauded among liberals, he came to be loathed by others, who viewed him as an advocate for COVID-19-related lockdowns and stay-at-home orders. His name also has come up during 2024 GOP campaigns, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis accusing former President Donald Trump of giving Fauci too much power when he was in office in 2020.

During the pandemic, Fauci appeared in hundreds of media interviews, including podcasts, YouTube shows, local television and radio broadcasters, and on cable news channels like MSNBC and CNN. Some conservative media figures, meanwhile, often criticized him for making generally dire predictions about the trajectory of the virus, accusing him of trying to cause panic among Americans.

Before stepping down months ago, Fauci said that potential investigations into his tenure as NIAID director and how he handled COVID-19 are likely politically motivated.

“Because others choose to drive me into the political arena, does not mean I am in the political arena in what I do, what I think, what I say, what I advise,” Fauci said at an event in November, adding that it “does not mean all of a sudden I have turned political.”

COVID Origins

Earlier this year, House Republicans sent a letter (pdf) to Fauci in a bid to compel testimony about the origins of COVID-19 and funding that was provided to a third-party group doing research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, where the virus was first reported.

“We know EcoHealth Alliance acted as a middleman, improperly funneling thousands of taxpayer dollars to the Wuhan lab to conduct risky gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses which could have started the pandemic,” House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said in a statement at the time, referring to the aforementioned third-party that performed research at the Wuhan lab.

The P4 laboratory on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on May 13, 2020. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images

Fauci, he added, “was alerted early on that COVID-19 had markings of a manipulated virus, yet may have chosen to cover it up instead of blowing the whistle.” Fauci has long denied involvement and distanced himself from controversial research at the lab.

“Understanding the origins of COVID-19 is essential to providing accountability and protecting Americans in the future,” Comer added. “Evidence continues to mount pointing to the virus leaking from an unsecure lab in Wuhan.”

In mid-2021, Fauci famously clashed with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) during Senate hearings on his agency’s involvement in the Wuhan lab. During one exchange, Fauci said that Paul “[does] not know” what he’s “talking about.”

“Dr. Fauci, as you are aware, it is a crime to lie to Congress,” Paul told Fauci during a Senate hearing in July of that year.

“On your last trip to our committee, on May 11, you stated that the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain of function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. And yet gain of function research was done entirely in the Wuhan institute by Dr. Shi and was funded by the NIH,” the senator also stated. “Dr. Fauci, knowing that it is a crime to lie to Congress, do you wish to retract your statement?” Paul later asked.

That’s when Fauci bristled at the Kentucky Republican’s statements and questions.

“Sen. Paul, I have never lied before the Congress and I do not retract that statement. This paper that you are referring to was judged by qualified staff up and down the chain as not being gain of function,” Fauci told the senator in response.

“You do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly, and I want to say that officially. You do not know what you are talking about,” he added to Paul.