After retiring as the director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) last year, Anthony Fauci, MD reported a net household worth of $11.5 million. This included the net worth of his wife Christine Grady, chief bioethicist at NIH. Dr. Fauci’s termination report showed that the couple’s wealth increased by nearly $2 million dollars during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Adam Andrzejewski, CEO and founder of the Chicago-based nonprofit OpenTheBooks, which analyzed Dr. Fauci’s finances:
During the pandemic years, the Fauci’s became deca-millionaires with their household net worth exceeding $10 million. Last year was a tough year in the markets. However, Fauci’s net worth is still up sharply from $7.6 million in 2019.
The Fauci fortune came largely from investments, awards, royalties and salary increases. Dr. Fauci said that all money he received from royalties goes to charities.4 He received approximately $1 million in prizes from nonprofit organizations, including the Dan David Foundation of Israel, from which he received $901,400 for “defending science” and “speaking truth to power.”
Dr. Fauci, who worked for both the Trump and Biden administrations, was the highest paid federal employee during the pandemic, earning more than both presidents and retiring with a government salary of approximately $481,000. Additionally, Dr. Fauci received the highest federal retirement package awarded in the history of the U.S. government. His pension the first year alone is estimated to have exceeded $414,000, and that amount is expected to exceed half a million dollars the following year.
Financial Security of Many Americans Took a Hit During Pandemic
The financial disclosures by Dr. Fauci have been met with criticism, particularly in light of pandemic response recommendations he made as the White House’s chief medical advisor that led to the federal government and states imposing extended lockdowns, which shut down businesses and schools and told people to stay home and “shelter in place.” It has become clearer that those public health policy recommendations seriously harmed the U.S. economy, the mental and physical well-being of children and adults, and the financial security of many Americans.
In January 2020, the U.S. economy was showing robust growth and the unemployment rate stood at 3.5 percent. Consumer spending was up 0.2 percent and incomes increased by 0.6 percent. In April 2020, Just a little over a month into the shutdowns, the unemployment rate surged to 14.7 percent. In March, 2021, a year into the shutdowns, unemployment was at 6.2 percent, still almost double pre COVID pandemic response shutdown levels.
Nearly One-Quarter of U.S. Households Lost Entire Savings During COVID Lockdowns
A Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health poll conducted in the fall of 2021 found that nearly 20 percent of U.S. households lost their entire savings during implementation of public health policy lockdowns recommended by Dr. Fauci. For Americans earning less than $50,000, some 30 percent of them lost their savings due to the federal government’s stay at home policies
A survey conducted by T. Rowe Price found that just under 70 percent of respondents said that their finances were negatively impacted by COVID due to reduced hours, lay-offs and an overall decrease in income.
Source: Dr. Fauci Became a Multi-Millionaire While Heading Up a Federal… – The Vaccine Reaction