Dr. Anthony Fauci to Resign by End of President Biden's Term After 4 Decades as NIAID Director

After decades of service combatting the nation's health crises, Dr. Anthony Fauci will resign from his post at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases before the next presidential term, PEOPLE independently confirms.

In an interview with Politico, Fauci, 81, discussed his plans to step away from the director role he has held since 1984.

"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," Fauci said when asked if he had stayed on as director out of a "sense of obligation."

Politico calls Fauci's admission that COVID is here to stay for the foreseeable future a "startling" one.

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Decades before the COVID-19 pandemic began in the U.S. in March 2020, Fauci worked to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s.

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Getty

In addition to serving as the director of NIAID, he was the first director of the National Institutes of Health's Office of AIDS Research when it was established in 1988.

When asked what he hopes his legacy will be after he steps away, he pointed to that work.

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Fauci told Politico that the founding of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, which was established while working under President George W. Bush, "may be the most impactful thing I have done in my career."

PEPFAR has helped save 21 million lives, the State Department estimates.

Alexei Hay/foureleven.agency Fauci during his PEOPLE Magazine photoshoot on Nov. 13.

In 2008, Fauci was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bush for his "determined and aggressive efforts to help others live longer and healthier lives," according to an archived transcript of the ceremony.

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Though his accomplishments date back to his first position at the NIAID in 1968, Fauci became somewhat of a celebrity in 2020 during the early stages of the COVID pandemic, telling PEOPLE at the time that seeing his image on merchandise humored him.

"It's surrealistic and, in some respects, nice and amusing," Fauci said. "But you can't take that stuff seriously and start to think you're a celebrity. When you start to think that, then you get into trouble. I'm a physician. I'm a scientist. And I'm a public health official."

Fauci has not announced a resignation date and could remain in his role as late as Jan. 20, 2025, the next Inauguration Day.