Farewell to Fauci

America’s chief public health authority plans to retire in December.

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, addresses Plenary Session I on the topic 30 Years of HIV/AIDS: A Scientific Journey and Look to the Future. November 19, 2011. (Photo Credit: Steve Shapiro/2011 Caribbean HIV Conference)

“I am announcing today that I will be stepping down from the positions of Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)and Chief of the NIAID Laboratory of Immunoregulation, as well as the position of Chief Medical Advisor to President Joe Biden,” announced Dr. Anthony Fauci in a statement released today. “I will be leaving these positions in December of this year to pursue the next chapter of my career.”

Referring to his time leading the NIAID, “for so many years and through so many scientific and public health challenges,” as, “the honor of a lifetime,” Dr. Fauci was full of praise for the, “countless talented and dedicated people in my own laboratory, at NIAID, at NIH and beyond.”

“To them I express my abiding respect and gratitude,” Dr. Fauci wrote in his farewell. “NIH is served by some of the most talented scientists in the world, and I have no doubt that I am leaving this work in very capable hands.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci working at a microscope, 1984. (Photo Credit: NIAID)

“Over the past 38 years as NIAID Director, I have had the enormous privilege of serving under and advising seven Presidents of the United States, beginning with…