In final White House briefing, Fauci urges Americans to get updated Covid booster

Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared Tuesday at his final White House press briefing, as he prepares to leave government next month following a half-century on the front lines of the world's gravest public health crises.

“The idea that this may be very likely the last time I’m in that press briefing room is kind of sad. Sad, and yet with the full realization and appreciation that all things must pass. Things can’t go on forever," Fauci said in an interview earlier in the day with NBC News.

Speaking at the briefing, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, said “the final message I give you from this podium is that please, for your own safety, for that of your family, get your updated Covid-19 shot as soon as you’re eligible.”

Fauci, 81, has directed the institute since 1984, a position bookended by the AIDS outbreak and the Covid-19 pandemic that has killed more than one million Americans.

He became a household name for his work on then-President Donald Trump’s Covid task force, appearing regularly in the briefing room for on-camera updates about the virus where he often pushed back against Trump’s false claims about the disease.