The pandemic was a time of financial hardship for many across the United States, as businesses were forced to shut their doors and the cost of living skyrocketed.
A small group of Americans saw their wealth go up, including Dr. Anthony Fauci and his wife, whose net worth jumped from $7.5 million in 2019 to $12.6 million by the end of 2021.
Keeping tabs on the Faucis’ wealth is financial watchdog OpenTheBooks.
Speaking with Fox News, CEO Adam Andrzejewski explained that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director profited through the pandemic via his “career-end salary spiking, lucrative cash prizes awarded by non-profit organizations around the world, and an ever-larger investment portfolio.”
Fauci is the top paid federal employee, making even more than President Biden, and as Andrzejewski pointed out, “his first-year golden parachute retirement pension is the largest in federal history.”
During the pandemic, Fauci’s already sky-high salary was increased by $20,000 to $456,028 per year. Given his position as the front-man in the Biden administration’s efforts to combat Covid, it’s perhaps not surprising that he was rewarded financially during this time.
Fauci’s wife, NIH chief bioethicist Dr. Christine Grady, was given a minor raise during the pandemic, bringing home $238,970 annually.
According to OpenTheBooks, Fauci’s investment portfolio rose by $784,000 in 2020 and nearly $1 million in 2021, bringing the total value to just over $10 million. His wife’s investments added another $2.4 million to the pot.
While he recently admitted that he and the Biden administration had “botched” certain aspects of their Covid response, during the pandemic Fauci was lauded as a hero and received numerous awards, some of which came with cash prizes in the thousands, or hundreds of thousands.
In 2021, he was awarded the Dan David Prize for “speaking truth to power” and “defending democracy,” and given $1 million. He kept nine tenths of it, and distributed the rest to scholarship winners.
Fauci also received the Eliot Richardson Prize in Public Service, and Abelson Prize from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, netting him $12,500.
Outside of his official duties, Fauci also edited a textbook for McGraw Hill, which earned him around $100,000.
All of this combined to give the Faucis a $5 million increase in their net worth over the period of the pandemic.
“Public health guidance during the pandemic has drastically impacted the lives of every citizen,” Andrzejewski noted, “and Dr. Fauci has been its most visible face. It's critical to know whether any decision-making is tied up in the financial interests of public leaders, whether they've made any ethics disclosures to the government, and how they invested.”
