UPDATE - Fauci Says He Will Retire From Top US Public Health Position By End Of Biden's Term

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th July, 2022) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Anthony Fauci in an interview on Monday said he will retire from the top public health position before the end of President Joe Biden's first term.

"I don't anticipate I'll be in this job at the end of the first term of President Biden, which is January 2025," Fauci told CNN. "So sometime between now and January 2025... you can guarantee I'll step down."

Fauci, who also serves as chief presidential medical advisor, clarified that he was not formally announcing his retirement now, as Politico had reported him saying earlier in the day.

In the interview with Politico, Fauci said he is ready to face criticism and questioning from lawmakers following the upcoming midterm elections in November should Republicans take control of either chamber of Congress.

Many candidates are running campaigns based on criticizing lockdowns, masking requirements and other public health measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the possibility of political attacks against Fauci for his role in the measures was not a part of his decision-making process for retirement, the report said.

"They're going to try and come after me, anyway. I mean, probably less so if I'm not in the job," Fauci said as quoted in the interview with Politico. "(But) I don't make that a consideration in my career decision."

Fauci, if called to give testimony to Congress, will defend vaccines while also acknowledging the possibility that COVID-19 may never be considered defeated, the report also said.

There have been over 562 million cases of COVID-19 confirmed worldwide, with over 89 million of those cases occurring in the US, according to data from Johns Hopkins University of Medicine. Over 6.3 million deaths are associated with the virus worldwide, and over 1 million in the US.

However, Fauci does not want his legacy to be most linked to his work during the COVID-19 pandemic after he retires, the report said. Rather, Fauci prefers to be remembered for his role in the NIAID's response to the emergence of HIV/AIDS in the 1980s, during which he became the institute's director, according to the report.

Fauci considers the release of the US government's first national HIV/AIDS strategy under President George W. Bush as one of "the most impactful" moments in his career, the report added.