Dr. Fauci Appears at Last White House Briefing Before Retirement — and the Room Gets Heated

Dr. Anthony Fauci made his final appearance at a White House briefing Tuesday in a scene that quickly grew heated after a reporter from the right-wing outlet The Daily Caller asked the infectious disease expert about the origins of COVID-19.

As the questions continued, Simon Ateba — chief White House correspondent for Today News Africa — began talking over other reporters in the room, attempting to ask his own questions about the origins of the disease.

That's when White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stepped in, telling Ateba, "I will not call on you if you yell and also you're taking time off the clock because Dr. Fauci has to leave in a couple of minutes."

Ateba continued, even as others tried to ask questions.

"It is not your turn," Jean-Pierre said, adding: "Simon, I'm done. Simon, I'm done. Simon, I'm done with you right now ... you're taking time away from your colleagues."

Fauci announced earlier this year that he would step down from his director role at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases by December, telling The New York Times that he wanted to "pursue the next chapter" of his career.

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. 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.

He became a nationally known name when COVID-19 began sweeping the globe, with many Republicans blaming him for government shutdowns amid the pandemic.

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Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images Dr. Anthony Fauci

The health official has previously had testy exchanges over COVID-19 with Republican Sen. Rand Paul about everything from one about the push to reopen schools and another about whether it was safe to relax restrictions on businesses — and again last March about wearing masks after a vaccination.

When asked by a Senate panel about the virus' origins, Fauci previously testified that researchers had concluded that COVID-19 "very, very likely" came from an animal species and "almost certainly" spread to humans in the Wuhan region of China, Fox News previously reported.

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He explained that he's "not retiring in the classic sense" and will spend his time traveling, writing, and encouraging the younger generation to enter government service.

"So long as I'm healthy, which I am, and I'm energetic, which I am, and I'm passionate, which I am, I want to do some things outside of the realm of the federal government," Fauci told the outlet.