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

Mar. 15, 2025

Dr. Anthony Faucimade 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 SecretaryKarine Jean-Pierrestepped 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.”

Decades before theCOVID-19 pandemicbegan 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 Researchwhen 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.

Dr. Anthony Fauci.Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images

The health official has previously had testy exchanges over COVID-19 with Republican Sen.Rand Paulabout everything from one about the pushto reopen schoolsand another about whether it was safe torelax restrictions on businesses— and again last March aboutwearing masksafter a vaccination.

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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.

source: people.com