Fauci gives final briefing after 50 years in America government
Dr Anthony Fauci
American immunologist and head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
After years at White House COVID updates, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, gave a final briefing to reporters Tuesday before leaving government at the end of the year.
Introducing Dr Fauci at the podium "one more time," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the country is "stronger and healthier because of his leadership."
Dr Fauci pressed the idea that Americans should get up-to-date on their COVID and flu shots ahead of winter, making a final pitch in a long effort to explain to Americans the safety and efficacy of the COVID vaccines.
"My message -- and my final message, maybe the final message I give you from this podium -- is that please for your own safety, for that of your family, get your updated COVID-19 shot as soon as you're eligible to protect yourself, your family and your community," he said.
As director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr Fauci has been a near-constant presence at White House briefings throughout the more than two years of the COVID pandemic.
In 2020, he served as a scientific check to then-President Donald Trump's musings on the virus. He stayed on after the election of President Joe Biden, who elevated Dr Fauci into a top personal adviser on the pandemic.
Dr Fauci is scheduled to retire from the government next month after more than five decades of service.
Asked by ABC News' Karen Travers how he wants people to remember his service in government, Dr Fauci said he'd leave it to others to judge but that he "gave it all I got for decades."
"I think what I've accomplished in my 54 years at the NIH and my 38 years as the director of NIAID, although COVID is really really very important, it is a fragment of the total 40 years that I've been doing it," Dr Fauci said.
"I'll let other people judge the value or not of my accomplishments," he continued, "but what I would like people to remember about what I've done is that every day for all of those years I've given it everything that I have and I've never left anything on the field."
~News