The politics of public health, now as polarized as anywhere else in government, will demand careful consideration about how Fauci's wide-ranging responsibilities should be filled. "I know Tony pretty well. I have no idea what his politics are. Reagan and both Bushes liked him. Clinton and Obama liked him," Tom Frieden, former CDC director and president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, a global public health initiative, told Nightly. "The country has just gotten so hyper-partisan, that that space for someone who's nonpartisan is very little." It's likely that we'll never see another Fauci-like figure juggling three roles and navigating the nexus of science and politics in such a public-facing manner, former Surgeon General Jerome Adams said. In Adams' view, the next Fauci will instead be a team of people: Someone to advise the president, someone to head NIAID and someone to lead the immunology laboratory. This separation of responsibilities matters more than ever in today's political environment, he said. "I can tell you that I, and most of my former and current colleagues, feel the real harm that has come from us being thrust into these roles where we were seen as part of an administration in a very politically volatile time," Adams said. "And that reflected on the institutions that we were representing — it reflected on the CDC, and reflected on the NIH, and reflected on the Office of the Surgeon General in ways that were unfortunate, that none of us wanted or expected." It's still important for White House officials to have trusted experts they can lean on for advice as new crises arise, Frieden said. But in his experience, while it's tempting to create "cross-cutting positions," it's organizationally smoother when agency experts remain within their lanes. With how Fauci's role evolved, given his decades of experience, he was ultimately tapped as the scientific lead for Covid — a role much larger than would have normally been expected of an NIAID head. "In my experience, the best [practice] is to strengthen the lines, basically, to make sure that the agencies that are supposed to be doing their jobs do their jobs well," Frieden said. "If you want a chief science adviser, that's someone within the Office of Science and Technology Policy for the president. If you want a chief public health outbreak control adviser, that's the relevant specialist at the CDC. If you want someone to lead research on infectious diseases, that's the head of NIAID." It made sense at the time to tap into Fauci's varied talents — as a scientist, a communicator and a respected adviser. But as Fauci moves to his next, post-government chapter, Adams said, it will be beneficial to allow the next NIAID head to maintain a degree of anonymity to the public, as Fauci once had pre-pandemic, and to have people like Ashish Jha, the White House Covid response coordinator, take on the more forward-facing political communication role. Adams sees this as a chance to improve upon the flow of information from government agencies, both to the public and the White House. "We want people to know who these folks are and to respect them at times of crisis, but we don't want them to be in the news every time [Kentucky GOP senator and harsh Fauci critic] Rand Paul decides that he's upset with the administration," Adams said. What keeps the former surgeon general up at night is his fear that talented candidates won't want these jobs after what Fauci and other public health officials have faced over the last few years. Fauci has received death threats, and his daughters have been harassed — and Adams worries that this vitriol is a big part of why Fauci is stepping down. Even today, after Fauci's announcement, GOP lawmakers said his retirement wouldn't stop them from calling him to the Hill for an investigation into the government's pandemic response if they take back Congress. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight's author at mward@politico.com or on Twitter @MyahWard.
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