Bill Crews, a public affairs aide at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, plans to retire after The Daily Beast reported on extensive derogatory comments he made towards the agency and its director, Dr. Anthony Fauci, in his post as an editor of the popular conservative website RedState. “NIAID first learned of this matter this morning, and Mr. Crews has informed us of his intention to retire,” a spokesperson for the agency said in an emailed statement. “We have no further comments on this as it is a personnel matter.” As The Daily Beast reported on Monday, Crews, the managing editor of RedState, has written for the site since 2004 under the pseudonym “Streiff.” Since the spring, his writings have included angry denunciations of Fauci and other public health leaders over efforts to combat the coronavirus that Crews has portrayed as an anti-Trump conspiracy. “If there were justice, we’d send and [sic] few dozen of these fascists to the gallows and gibbet their tarred bodies in chains until they fall apart,” he wrote in June of officials leading the nation’s COVID mitigation strategies.
