White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci clarified Tuesday that he doesn’t plan to retire after he said Monday that he was going to step down from his government position at the end of President Joe Biden’s term.
Fauci, 81, has headed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease since 1984 but became a household name in early 2020 when he began delivering interviews to media outlets about the COVID-19 pandemic, essentially serving as the federal government’s chief pandemic spokesperson.
“What happens between now and then I have not decided, but the one thing I do know is that I have other things that I want to do in a professional way that I want to have the capability—while I still have the energy and the passion to do them,” he told The Hill Tuesday.
The U.S. Supreme Court in January struck down the Biden administration’s vaccine-or-test rule, saying that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration exceeded its authority.
Also in the interview with Politico, Fauci also said the world will be living with COVID-19 for some time.
“We’re in a pattern now. If somebody says, ‘You’ll leave when we don’t have COVID anymore,’ then I will be 105. I think we’re going to be living with this,” he said, adding, “What we have right now, I think we’re almost at a steady state.”