MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US epidemiologist Fauci tests positive for COVID-19

Fauci has not been in direct contact with President Biden recently

Leading US epidemiologist Anthony Fauci has tested positive for COVID-19 despite having taken four doses of vaccine against the malady, it was reported. The 81-year-old physician has been said to be experiencing “mild symptoms.”

Fauci, a medical advisor to the US Government both under Presidents Donald Trump and Joseph Biden, was due to appear Thursday before the Senate's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, but he was forced to “work from home,” according to a statement from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which Fauci runs.

“Dr. Fauci will follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's COVID guidelines and his physician's medical advice and will return when he has a negative test,” the document also pointed out.

The physician has not been in direct contact with President Biden recently, the statement also underlined.

Fauci has been a White House advisor during seven presidencies, from Ronald Reagan to Joe Biden, and, during the pandemic, he was a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. He took heavy flak from those opposed to COVID-19 vaccines and masking mandates.

Fauci's infection was made public just days after Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra tested positive for the virus for the second time in less than a month.

According to the Johns Hopkins University, the United States has reported nearly 86 million cases of COVID-19 and more than one million related deaths.