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Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s foremost infectious disease specialist and one of the most visible members of the government’s response to the pandemic, says he’s open to an expanded role in the Biden administration.
“I’m perfectly comfortable with the role I’m in, but certainly if the President of the United States wants me to do anything else, I would seriously consider it,” Mr. Fauci, who headed the National Institute of Allergy and infectious diseases since 1984, McClatchy told. “Frankly, I don’t plan on doing anything other than what I’m doing now. But again, we have an elected president who may have other plans. I do not know.”
Mr Fauci has served in the post in six different presidential administrations, but his sometimes bleak assessments of the United States’ disastrous response to the coronavirus put him at odds with the president, who has often blatantly misrepresented the scale of the crisis.
At a Trump rally in November in Florida, members of the public chanted “late Fauci,” and the president suggested he could see the doctor after the election. The two have had an increasingly distant relationship over the months, with Mr Fauci not invited to various briefings with the president.
The disease expert reportedly held talks with President-elect Biden’s chief of staff Ron Klain and told McClatchy he was not interested in leading the Centers for Disease Control or the Department of Health and Human Services social. He also said he would support Mr Biden’s proposed national mask mandate.
“If President-elect Biden decides on a mask term, I will fully support that,” he said. “I know there is a considerable amount of hindsight for terms of office,” Fauci said. “I would definitely be in favor of that.”
He also said he was confident enough at the start of the promising evidence from the Pfizer and Moderna coronavirus vaccines that he would take them on camera himself.
“I have seen enough data on the Pfizer and Moderna products for me to really be convinced that we are dealing with a safe and effective vaccine,” he said. “I would be more than happy, in a public arena, just so that we have a photo, to get the shot.”
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