There was a time when not only in the USA many feared this moment and some longed for it. The moment America’s top disease expert, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), declares he is taking off his hat as presidential adviser.
It was the time when the question of which cuts the corona pandemic would force grew into a bitter culture war. It was the time when Donald Trump was still US President and press conferences were held almost daily on the new, frightening disease.
On Monday it was time. Fauci, who had advised a total of seven US Presidents for more than half a century and accompanied them through HIV, Ebola and Corona crises, announced that he would be stepping down as head of NIAID at the end of the year and with that his work for the White House and to end President Joe Biden. On December 24, Fauci turns 81 and has been at the helm of NIAID for 38 years – who can blame him for that step?
It is quite possible that “Dr. Fauci”, as the small, dainty virologist is respectfully called, only lasted so long because right-wing circles wanted to see his resignation – or even better, his sacking – so badly. To this day, at Trump rallies and similar events, the call “Lock him up” rings out.
His crime in the eyes of these people: he mishandled the pandemic introduced by China from start to finish, damaged the economy with his recommendation for lockdowns, curtailed the freedom of Americans with compulsory masks and calls for vaccinations. But above all, he harmed Trump.
The hostilities that Fauci faced were and are enormous. Rarely has a scientist been dragged into the political mud in this way.
But seldom before has a scientist been so well known and revered. In the front yards of liberal American cities like Washington DC, you can still see signs that read: “I stand with Dr. Fauci”, “I stand by Dr. Fauci’s side”.
His appearances on television, telling Americans what to do and how to behave in these uncertain times, will not be forgotten. Fauci was the face of the pandemic.
“Dr. Fauci” also embodied the hope for many people around the world that the US administration under Trump would not do everything wrong. That science is still heard.
The fact that Fauci and the US disease agency CDC made mistakes like experts all over the world in the pandemic is part of the truth, but does not diminish his merits. For example, at the beginning of the crisis, Fauci declared that Americans did not have to wear a face mask, but should leave the masks, which were still scarce at the time, to the medical staff.
Above all, the first appearance one day after Trump’s departure from the White House will remain in memory. A relaxed, unburdened Fauci appeared in the White House press room on January 21, 2021. “The idea that you can come up here and talk about what you know, what the evidence is, what the state of the art is — we’re going to let the science do the talking,” he said. And that is a liberating feeling.
Only he knows how much strength and self-control it took for Fauci to always stand by Trump’s side and listen to him without batting an eyelid when he made crude and false statements about the pandemic. He calls himself “chronically exhausted”.
After all: If it got too hair-raising, he also grinned. And he certainly contradicted Trump, not every time, but again and again. For example, when Trump claimed in the fall of 2020 that the corona virus was no more deadly than the flu. Fauci couldn’t help but publicly state that that was wrong.
It says a lot about his standing that the president at the time still wanted him by his side for a long time. Even Trump will secretly have had sleepless nights from time to time because of the virus, which has long been so difficult to assess. Especially when it hit him too. By all accounts, the Republican was significantly sicker in October 2020 than the White House claimed at the time.
When the difficult course of the pandemic then increasingly reduced Trump’s electoral chances, Fauci became a political opponent – although he continued to work for Trump. The conspiracy theories became more and more abstruse, and the number of death threats against the virologist increased. And Republican members of Congress are now vowing to investigate Fauci if they get the majority they need after November’s midterm elections.
After more than 50 years of service under a wide variety of presidents and in the face of five major health crises, Anthony Fauci probably won’t fear it either. He doesn’t want to stop working anyway.
He told the New York Times that he would retire “not in the traditional sense”. Rather, he plans to travel more, write more, and work to get more people into government service.
The corona pandemic has made Anthony Fauci a hero, but also an object of hate. After two and a half years, the crisis is apparently so far under control that “Dr. Fauci” can at least personally shift down a gear. That’s probably good news.
