Dr. Anthony Fauci faced a tough grilling over whether or not he should step aside as his critics view him as a deterrent in the Biden administration’s ongoing effort to vaccinate Americans.

During Wednesday’s appearance on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show, Fauci was confronted by a list of COVID-era “controversies,” including the pause of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the ivermectin debate, the avoidance of natural immunity as well as his “noble lie” discouraging Americans not to wear masks in the early months of the pandemic to prevent an N95 shortage.

“I have lost confidence in the CDC and the FDA and I actually believe a lot of Americans, a significant part of America now have lost confidence in you, Dr. Fauci,” Hewitt began. “Is there a point where you will say, ‘I do more harm than good because people don’t listen to me anymore,’ and step aside?”

“No. Absolutely, unequivocally no, Hugh. Sorry,” Fauci reacted. “When you have an evolving situation and data are rapidly evolving in something that is unprecedented and unknown, you have to evolve with it and look at the data as it exists now and make to the best of your ability a decision, a recommendation, all the kinds of things that go into the evolution.”

Following Fauci’s meandering answer, Hewitt persisted with his intense line of questioning by first acknowledging he “understands” why Fauci lied about the masks but also calling it “bad policy.”

“It’s just a fact that Tony Fauci, not the guy I’m talking with but Tony Fauci- the person in people’s minds, is now an impediment to public health because people won’t listen to you,” Hewitt said. “They actively reject what Tony Fauci says for reasons which are complicated… but can you accept that if that’s just the fact, you ought to respond to it and say ‘Mr. President, I think my time is up as a successful and effective spokesperson?’”

“You know, with all due respect… I just completely disagree with that premise because there are an awful lot of people who do listen, who do the right thing from a public health standpoint,” Fauci responded. “So because there are a lot of people who have ideas of conspiracies and changing minds and flip-flopping, that’s not a reason to step down. Not at all.”

The NIAID director recalled his adversarial relationship with activists 40 years ago during the AIDS epidemic how he “brought them into the dialogue” to support his ongoing presence in the Biden administration.