There have been no new COVID-19 variants since Dr. Anthony Fauci retired.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during the daily briefing at the White House on Dec. 1, 2021. (AP)
COVID-19 did not stop mutating when Fauci stepped down from top role
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Dr. Anthony Fauci stepped down as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in December 2022. In his announcement, he said he was not retiring.
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There has been at least one new COVID-19 variant recorded since then. Three others that were first detected in 2022 have risen to the World Health Organization’s status of "variant under monitoring" or "variants of interest."
Did COVID-19 stop mutating when former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci stepped down from the position? No, but some folks on social media said it did.
"Anyone else find it odd we just stopped having new variants all the sudden?" read a screenshot posted on Instagram on April 6. Its caption read, "Seems like all the variants dried up when Fraudci retired. Not weird at all."
The post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
Fauci stepped down at the Dec. 31, 2022, as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (a role he held for 38 years), chief of the institute’s Laboratory of Immunoregulation, and chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden.
He announced in August 2022 that while he was moving on from these positions, he was not retiring. He said he planned to "pursue the next phase of his career."
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Viruses constantly mutate, and some mutations result in new variants. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explained, "Some changes and mutations allow the virus to spread more easily or make it resistant to treatments or vaccines. As the virus spreads, it may change and become harder to stop."
The World Health Organization tracks currently circulating variants under monitoring, updated as of March 30. It listed XBB.1.16, a variant with its earliest documented samples recorded Jan. 23, 2023. This variant has been detected in 27 countries as of April 6.
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Meanwhile, several variants that were detected in 2022 have risen to become "variants under monitoring" — such as CH.1.1 and XBF — or "variants of interest" like XBB.1.5.
A variant under monitoring, according to the WHO, is a SARS-CoV-2 variant "with genetic changes that are suspected to affect virus characteristics and early signals of growth advantage relative to other circulating variants," but that needs more assessment to determine potential health impact.
Variants of interest have genetic changes "that are predicted or known to affect virus characteristics," such as transmissibility, and have other indicators suggesting an emerging risk to global public health.
We rate the claim that there have been no new variants after Fauci stepped down from his positions False.
Our Sources
Instagram post, April 6, 2023
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Statement by Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., Aug. 22, 2022
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci to Leave NIAID at the End of December, Dec. 7, 2022
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Variants of the Virus, updated Feb. 6, 2023
World Health Organization, Tracking SARS-CoV-2 variants, updated March 30, 2023
World Health Organization, Updated working definitions and primary actions for SARS-CoV-2 variants, March 15, 2023
World Health Organization, Weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19, April 6, 2023
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COVID-19 did not stop mutating when Fauci stepped down from top role
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