In a recent interview, Dr. Anthony Fauci bragged that he turned down multimillion-dollar job offers from major corporations to keep his highly paid position as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Fauci, 83, will retire from his NIAID post in 2022 as the highest-paid government employee, earning $481,000 in his final year in office and, together with his wife, has a reported net worth of more than $11 million.
“So at the time I was offered it, I was making $125,000, $200,000,” President Biden’s former chief medical adviser said in an interview. “CBS News Sunday Morning” The full version will be broadcast on June 16th.
“Then you’ll get offered a job making $5 million, $6 million, $7 million a year,” the infectious disease specialist argued.
Fauci said he had received offers from the private sector, including from pharmaceutical companies and “private equity,” but turned them all down because he felt his work in public health was “invaluable.”
“[I] “I realized that what I was doing was impacting the health of the country I care about and indirectly the health of the world, because the United States is a leader in science, medicine and public health and what we do indirectly ripples outward,” he said. “To me, that’s priceless.”
US taxpayer watchdog group OpenTheBooks.com reported earlier this month that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its scientists have received $710 million in royalties from pharmaceutical companies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NIH refuses to disclose the amount of royalties paid to each scientist.
Fauci claims that NIAID scientists raked in the $690 million in cash, but that he himself got “zero” of it.
He acknowledges only that he received $122 in royalties for the monoclonal antibody he developed 27 years ago.
Fauci joined the Georgetown University School of Medicine faculty last year as distinguished professor in the division of infectious diseases.
