After more than 50 years of service to the government, America’s top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci gave his final White House briefing on Tuesday ahead of his retirement next month. In a parting plea, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser urged Americans to get a COVID booster shot before the holiday season. “My message, and my final message—maybe the final message I give you from this podium—is that please for your own safety, for that of your family, get your updated COVID-19 shot as soon as you’re eligible to protect yourself, your family and your community,” he told reporters at the White House. Fauci is set to retire after 38 years as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “I’ll let other people judge the value or not of my accomplishments,” he told ABC News, “but what I would like people to remember about what I’ve done is that every day for all of those years I’ve given it everything that I have and I’ve never left anything on the field.”