Will we ever see the likes of Anthony Fauci in government again? Nightly reports 👇
— Fifty-four years in government — including 38 years leading the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. An adviser to seven presidents, beginning with Ronald Reagan. A Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient for his work in combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The face of the U.S. government’s Covid response.and not just because of his standout accomplishments.
“I know Tony pretty well. I have no idea what his politics are. Reagan and both Bushes liked him. Clinton and Obama liked him,” Tom Frieden, former CDC director and president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, a global public health initiative, told Nightly. “The country has just gotten so hyper-partisan, that that space for someone who’s nonpartisan is very little.”
It’s still important for White House officials to have trusted experts they can lean on for advice as new crises arise, Frieden said. But in his experience, while it’s tempting to create “cross-cutting positions,” it’s organizationally smoother when agency experts remain within their lanes. With how Fauci’s role evolved, given his decades of experience, he was ultimately tapped as the scientific lead for Covid — a role much larger than would have normally been expected of an NIAID head.