Anthony Fauci again called to testify about COVID-19 to U.S. Senate

Dr. Anthony Fauci has testified in Congress more than 20 times since COVID-19 was discovered in China, but Wednesday’s appearance occurs before a panel led by his chief Republican antagonist, who would like to see him criminally prosecuted. 

Fauci retired in 2022 after decades leading the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). He was subpoenaed weeks ago after declining to appear voluntarily before the Senate’s homeland security and governmental affairs committee, chaired by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. 

There has been no groundbreaking development in the scientific community to necessitate a new Fauci hearing, though this week Paul released diaries he received that Fauci typed on government computers, discovered after a review conducted in the Health and Human Services Department led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Fauci, 85, is a 2008 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient for his work on pioneering HIV/AIDS research beginning in the 1980s, and for helping implement president George W. Bush’s President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

But when it comes to COVID-19, Fauci has served as a lightning rod and frequent target of ire among Republicans after he served as Donald Trump’s chief medical adviser in 2020, taking on a more prominent public-facing role than the officials who there then at the helm of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control. 

Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise offered a typical summation among Republicans on social media this week, calling Fauci “a fraud.” Republicans point to what they say are contradictory or harmful statements Fauci made in the early weeks and the months of the pandemic concerning masking, distancing, school closures and lockdowns.

“He intentionally misled the American people and Democrat lawmakers and the mainstream media were more than happy to cover for him,” said Scalise.

‘A moving target’

Fauci, in a 2024 interview with CBC News, said scientists were dealing with a “moving target,” a virus that, it was soon revealed, was not like influenza or SARS. 

“Science is a vehicle to allow you to gain information in real time, and when you have to make a decision, be it a recommendation or a guideline, you make it on the basis of the information as you know it at the time,” he said.

More seriously, Paul and other Republicans over several hearings have focussed on a six-figure grant given by the National Institutes of Health, where NIAID is housed, to the U.S.-based EcoHealth Alliance nonprofit, which worked with a Chinese lab studying coronaviruses commonly carried by bats.

Fauci has been adamant that his government institute didn’t directly fund risky gain-of-function research, and that it would be “molecularly impossible” for the work being done at the Wuhan Institute of Virology to be the original source of the virus. 

“Any experienced virologists will tell you that those viruses could not have been the original virus from which SARS-COV-2 evolved,” he told CBC News.

Democrats like Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, per a Politico report, said that Paul and the Republicans are “obsessed” with Fauci. As well, many scientists like Angela Rasmussen, the U.S.-born virologist at the University of Saskatchewan, defend Fauci’s work in the face of the rapidly emerging virus. 

“Ask if your tax dollars should go towards prosecuting lifelong public servants for imaginary crimes,” Rasmussen posted on social media this week.  

Democrats on the panel are likely to bring up the fact that the Republican rancour around Fauci has created a dangerous climate. Fauci and his family have been subjected to threats, leading to at least one criminal conviction, and his security detail was cancelled by the second Trump administration last year. 

Paul, trained as an ophthalmologist, has helped lead the charge against Fauci for six years. The first U.S. senator to contract the coronavirus, Paul has questioned nearly everything about COVID-19 from its inception.

WATCH | ‘Kindling the crazies’:

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Sen. Rand Paul clash over COVID-19 response

Dr. Anthony Fauci and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul clashed over the COVID-19 response during a Senate health hearing, which showcased the toxic division over the pandemic that has led to a “Fire Fauci” campaign and death threats.