The unelected bureaucrat who was the architect of the disastrous Covid restrictions that have held America back for two years may be stepping down.

Anthony Fauci, who previously said he would not step down until the pandemic is over, he is now starting to sing a bit of a different tune, saying in a podcast released on Friday that he has considered the option.

In an interview with ABC podcast Start Here, Fauci told host Brad Mielke that we may already be at the point that he’d consider the pandemic to be over.

“I have said that I would stay in what I’m doing until we get out of the pandemic phase and I think we might be there already,” Fauci told Mielke. “If we can stay in this, then we’re at a point where I feel that we are done with this, but I don’t have any plans right now to go away, but you never know.”

Mielke asked Fauci if retiring was in the cards for him. Fauci responded: “I certainly have because I have to do it sometime. I can’t stay at this job forever unless my staff finds me slumped over at my desk one day. I’d rather not do that.

He added that he’s a healthy guy, but that he looked forward to spending more time with his family.

Upon retiring, Fauci is expected to receive what has been called by Forbes to be a “golden parachute,” that is, an extraordinarily large retirement package “with an annual payment exceeding $350,000.”

“For the second year in a row, Fauci was the most highly compensated federal employee and out earned the president, four star generals, and roughly 4.3 million of his colleagues. As director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Fauci earned $434,312 in 2020, the latest year available, up from $417,608 in 2019,” Forbes wrote.