- Dr. Anthony Fauci has tested positive for COVID-19 and is experiencing mild symptoms.
- Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, has been vaccinated and boosted twice.
- Fauci helped lead America's pandemic response.
Dr. Anthony Fauci has tested positive for COVID-19, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases announced Wednesday.
Fauci — who is the nation's top infectious disease expert and leads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — has been vaccinated and boosted twice and is "currently experiencing mild symptoms," the agency said in a statement.
Appointed director of NIAID in 1984, Fauci, 81, will isolate and continue to work from home, according to the the statement. He is currently the chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden.
Under the Trump administration, Fauci served on the White House task force for COVID-19 and he continues to advise the federal government on its response to the pandemic.
In April, Fauci said the United States was "transitioning" out of the full-on outbreak phase of the pandemic and into an era where "people are starting to learn to live with the virus, still protecting themselves by vaccination, by the availability of antivirals, by testing."
An average of more than 100,000 people a day continue to test positive for COVID-19, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But thanks to vaccinations and improved treatment options the mortality rate has fallen steeply, with an average of just over 280 people dying per day due to the virus compared to more than 3,000 per day in January 2021.