COVID-19 comes for us all — even for the United States' top medical expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who publicly announced today that he's finally contracted the novel coronavirus for the first time since the pandemic began.
In a statement, the National Institutes of Health said that Fauci, who heads the agency's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is currently experiencing "mild symptoms" and is continuing to work from home while quarantining.
The announcement also notes that Fauci has received four doses of vaccination against the virus — his two original doses as well as two subsequent boosters.
While many other members of both the Biden administration and Trump's before it have gotten COVID, including the former president and the current vice president, the 81-year-old pandemic czar hadn't. In May, he and three other members of the White House's coronavirus task force quarantined after a "low-risk" exposure to an aide who had COVID, but he never tested positive at that time.
Unsurprisingly, Fauci's highly-vaccinated status has become a major point of interest in articles and tweets about his COVID case from both sides of the coronavirus policy aisle. Back in reality, of course, it's perfectly possible to catch COVID after being fully vaccinated, though your symptoms and risk of death or serious complications will be much lower.
Though it's likely early in the NIAID head's illness, the fact that he's said to be experiencing mild symptoms is a good thing, especially considering his advanced age.
All the same, it's telling that we are, as one Twitter user noted, "in the part of the pandemic where Dr. Fauci has" COVID.
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