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Dr. Anthony Fauci has testified in Congress more than 20 times since the discovery of COVID-19 in China, but Wednesday’s appearance came before a panel led by his main Republican opponent, who would like to see him prosecuted criminally.
Fauci retired in 2022 after decades leading the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). He was subpoenaed weeks ago after refusing to appear voluntarily before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Governmental Affairs, chaired by Sen. Rand Paul.
There has been no dramatic progress in the scientific community to demand a new Fauci hearing, although this week Paul released the diaries he found written by Fauci on government computers, obtained after a review of the Department of Health and Human Services led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Fauci, 85, received the 2008 Presidential Medal of Freedom for his pioneering work in HIV/AIDS research since the 1980s, and for helping to launch President George W. Bush’s Emergency AIDS Relief Program.
But when it comes to COVID-19, Fauci has served as a lightning rod and an often angry target among Republicans after becoming Donald Trump’s top medical adviser in 2020, taking a more prominent public-facing role than the then-existing officials who ran Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control.
Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise offered the usual summation among Republicans on social media this week, calling Fauci a “fraud.” Republicans point to what they say are contradictory or dangerous statements Fauci made in the early weeks and months of the pandemic regarding masking, social distancing, school closures and closures.
“He has deliberately misled the American people and Democrat lawmakers and the mainstream media is more than happy to cover him up,” Scalise said.
‘moving target’
Fauci, in a 2024 interview with CBC News, said scientists were dealing with a “moving target,” a virus that was quickly revealed to be unlike the flu or SARS.
“Science is a vehicle that allows you to get information in real time, when you have to make a decision, be it recommendations or a guide, you follow the information as you know at that time,” he said.
Sunday Magazine28:00Dr. Anthony Fauci’s journey from public health leader to political lightning rod
More importantly, Paul and other Republicans in several hearings focused on the funding given to six people by the National Institutes of Health, where the NIAID is housed, a US non-profit organization, the EcoHealth Alliance, which has worked with a Chinese lab studying coronaviruses that are often carried by bats.
Fauci has maintained that his government agency did not directly fund dangerous research, and that it is “extremely unlikely” that work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the original source of the virus.
“Any experienced virologist will tell you that those viruses could not have been the first virus from which SARS-COV-2 evolved,” he told CBC News.
Democrats like Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, according to a Politico report, said Paul and Republicans are “very focused” on Fauci. And, many scientists such as Angela Rasmussen, a US-born virologist at the University of Saskatchewan, defended Fauci’s work in the face of the rapidly evolving virus.
“Ask if your tax dollars should be spent on prosecuting government employees for life for imaginary crimes,” Rasmussen wrote on social media this week.
Democrats on the panel are likely to point out the fact that Republican infighting around Fauci has created a dangerous climate. Fauci and his family have faced threats, resulting in at least one criminal conviction, and his security clearance was revoked by Trump’s second administration last year.
Paul, trained as an ophthalmologist, has helped lead Fauci’s case for six years. The first US congressman to contract the coronavirus, Paul has questioned almost everything about COVID-19 since its inception, from wearing a mask to the absolute death toll.
Dr. Anthony Fauci and Sen. Rand Paul clashed over the response to COVID-19 during a Senate health hearing, revealing a toxic divide over the disease that has led to a “Fire Fauci” campaign and death threats.
“If Anthony Fauci comes before my committee tomorrow and swears to himself, his previous pardon of Joe Biden will not protect him,” Paul wrote on social media this week, referring to the controversial pardon issued by the Democratic president who served between two terms of Trump.
It’s not clear if that’s the case — there’s never been a reason to legally challenge the pardon — but the stakes may be higher for Fauci. Another former health officer of the state, Dr. David Morens, has been indicted, and the Justice Department in the second Trump administration has pursued the prosecution of a number of Trump critics or MAGA.
