Dr. Anthony Fauci has decided not to attend the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday amid concerns about Covid, a senior administration official confirmed to NBC News.
Fauci, 81, President Joe Biden’s top Covid adviser and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told The New York Times on Tuesday that he decided not to go to the dinner “because of my individual assessment of my personal risk.” His decision was first reported by CNN.
Biden, 79, and first lady Jill Biden, 70, plans to attend the dinner at the Washington Hilton on Saturday, the first time the event has been held since 2019 because of the pandemic. It would also mark the first time a sitting president will be at the dinner since Barack Obama attended in 2016. Trevor Noah, the host of “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central, will be the featured entertainer at the dinner.
A few thousand people have attended the dinner in previous years, held in a large ballroom at the Hilton hotel. Washington, D.C., lifted its mask mandate for many indoor public venues in February.
