Dr. Anthony Fauci has announced he will step down as White House Chief Medical Adviser at the end of 2022. This is after spending 38 years as director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). We salute Dr. Fauci for a lifetime of service during which he advised seven different U.S. presidents. Quite an achievement! But how did his career begin?
How Humble Beginnings Inspired Greatness
Anthony Stephen Fauci was born in New York City in 1940. His paternal grandparents arrived from Italy in the late 19th century. His maternal grandmother was a seamstress married to a famous Swiss artist. However Fauci’s parents were more down to earth.
That’s because Stephen Fauci was a pharmacist who owned his own store directly beneath the family home. His wife part-timed there, while also working at a dry cleaner. And as for young Anthony, well he delivered prescriptions on a bicycle.
However, when he was halfway through Jesuit private school he made a momentous decision. ‘I’m going to be a physician’ he told his parents with the forthrightness that would mark his career. He graduated from Cornell University’s Medical College (now Weill Cornell Medicine) in 1966, first in class.
We Salute Dr. Fauci for a Lifetime of Service
Anthony Fauci concentrated on adult internal medicine, mainly infectious diseases and the immune system while at Cornell. He then completed his internship and residency at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center (now Weill Cornell Medical Center).
After that, he joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a clinical associate. He worked in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Laboratory of Clinical Investigation. And then he became its head of clinical physiology in 1974.
He moved on to become director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 1984, and steadfastly held the position ever since. This despite being offered, and refusing the role of head of National Institutes of Health (NIH) several times. He will now focus on mentoring the next generation of scientific leaders according to CNBC.
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