Anthony Fauci’s credibility did not survive COVID-19. Maybe that’s a good thing.

SHARE COMMENT After four decades of spearheading America’s responses to infectious disease threats from AIDS to monkeypox, Dr. Anthony Fauci announced on Monday that he plans to step down. Some are toasting the achievements of a towering figure in public health, while others are celebrating the exit of a government official whom they view as having mismanaged the COVID-19 pandemic. Back in April 2020, Fauci was one of the most revered figures in America—the “trusted doctor” so many sought to guide them in uncertain times. But now, Fauci is closer in popularity to the IRS. Fauci’s personal achievements as a scientist are indisputable—he’s one of the most-cited living researchers on the planet for his work on HIV and other topics. But his legacy as a government health official will, for better or worse, be more complicated. In a pandemic that was weaponized by a cynical president from the very start, Fauci may have tried to stay above the fray, but now, he’s firmly in the grip of politics.

Even on his way out the door, some congressional Republicans still want to investigate Fauci for his handling of the COVID-19 response (as well as for the conspiracy theory that he indirectly caused a lab leak in Wuhan, China). “Fire Fauci” has become a common refrain on the right. Even some Democrats have grown increasingly tired of the government’s pandemic guidance. Did Fauci fail to rise to the occasion, or did the occasion drag him down? Now 81, Fauci has served as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease since 1984, advising every president since Reagan. With President George W. Bush, Fauci developed the global program to fight AIDS known as PEPFAR, which has saved some 21 million lives. During the Ebola crisis in 2015, he donned PPE and helped treat an infected patient in part to show his staff that he wouldn’t ask them to do anything he wouldn’t do himself. Later that year, he hugged a nurse who had recovered from the virus to allay public fears about contagiousness.