Dr. Anthony Fauci has hinted that he may soon retire as calls mount in Congress to remove him from his role.
Republicans have been warning they plan to launch multiple investigations into Dr. Fauci if they take back control of the House after the midterms, which seems highly likely.
Fauci, who has come under fire from both sides during his decades-long career as a bureaucrat, hinted that he is ready to retire while speaking with ABC News.
“I have said that I would stay in what I’m doing until we get out of the pandemic phase and I think we might be there already, if we can stay in this,” Fauci said as the nation sees low case numbers and low hospitalizations.
“I can’t stay at this job forever.
“Unless my staff is gonna find me slumped over my desk one day.
“I’d rather not do that,” he added.
As Slay News previously reported, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced an amendment earlier this week to remove Fauci as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
“We’ve learned a lot over the past two years, but one lesson in particular is that no one person should be deemed ‘dictator-in-chief,’” Paul said when he announced his bill.
“No one person should have unilateral authority to make decisions for millions of Americans.”
“I would not be surprised if in the next few weeks we see somewhat of either a flattening of our diminution or maybe even an increase.
“Whether or not that is going to lead to another surge, a mini-surge or maybe even a moderate surge, is very unclear because there are a lot of other things that are going on right now,” he said.
From The Hill:
Fauci’s prediction is based on the United Kingdom, where cases have slightly started to go up, although “their intensive care bed usage is not going up, which means they’re not seeing a blip up of severe disease,” Fauci added.
The increase in cases comes as the BA.2 variant is seeing an uptick in the U.S., with Fauci predicting on the podcast the variant will overtake omicron in the future.
The U.S. has just begun easing COVID-19 restrictions after two years of pandemic policies such as masking and social distancing.
From ABC:
At the same time, Fauci urged Americans who haven’t yet gotten their first booster, which would be their third shot in a Pfizer or Moderna series, to do so.
A resurgence of cases could also mean Americans are asked to wear masks again, which Fauci predicted would be an uphill battle.
“From what I know about human nature, which I think is pretty much a lot, people are kind of done with COVID,” Fauci said.
Still, he defended the CDC decision to loosen its mask recommendations earlier this month by shifting to a strategy that focused more on severe outcomes, like hospitalizations and deaths, rather than on daily case spread.
“You can go ahead and continue to tiptoe towards normality, which is what we’re doing, but at the same time, be aware that you may have to reverse,” Fauci said.
And if the U.S. does continue to make its way back toward normal times, Fauci himself has a personal choice to consider. At 81 years old, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is “certainly” thinking about retirement.
