Dr. Anthony Fauci is scheduled to testify Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, setting up a high-profile confrontation with committee chairman Sen. Rand Paul, (R-KY). Fauci’s appearance comes under subpoena following the weekend release of more than 1,000 pages of personal diary entries he kept during his tenure leading the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The documents, made public by Paul’s office, span from December 2019 to December 2022, covering Fauci’s final years as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases under both the Trump and Biden administrations. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Fox News that federal officials retrieved the journals from government computer servers in recent months.
Wednesday’s hearing marks the latest escalation in a multi-year disagreement between Fauci and Paul, who are both physicians. Paul has repeatedly accused Fauci of downplaying the theory that SARS-CoV-2 leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, and claims Fauci misled Congress regarding National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for “gain-of-function” research—a practice involving the genetic modification of viruses to study their evolution—at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Paul previously urged the Justice Department to prosecute Fauci on those grounds, though former President Joe Biden issued a preemptive pardon for Fauci before leaving office last year.
Fauci has consistently denied lying to Congress or mischaracterizing NIH grants. He maintains that the bat coronavirus research conducted in Wuhan did not meet federal definitions for gain-of-function research and that the viruses studied were genetically distant from the strain that caused the pandemic.
During a contentious 2021 committee hearing, Fauci addressed Paul directly, saying, “If anybody is lying here, senator, it is you.” In a private diary entry dated April 20, 2021, Fauci wrote that Paul was among those spreading conspiracy theories “to try and connect me with the virus from WUHAN.”
U.S. agencies and international health bodies remain divided on the origin of the virus. A World Health Organization panel reported last year that available evidence points to a natural transmission from animals to humans, though it noted a lab origin could not be ruled out due to incomplete data access from China. Within the U.S. intelligence community, the National Intelligence Council and four agencies assessed natural transmission as the most likely cause, while the FBI and Department of Energy concluded a laboratory leak was more probable. The CIA, which initially reached no conclusion, issued an updated assessment last year leaning toward the lab leak theory.
The newly released diary entries offer a look at Fauci’s real-time observations during the opening weeks of the health crisis. In January 2020, Fauci wrote that “we know the market was not the source, it was the amplifier,” adding that “somewhere the virus jumped from animals to humans.” About a week later, detailing a phone conversation with roughly a dozen infectious disease experts, Fauci noted that while two experts believed mutations occurred naturally, “the rest felt that deliberate insertion was possible” and that “we could not let this go.”
Paul has pointed to these entries as proof that Fauci privately entertained lab-origin theories that he publicly minimized. Fauci has maintained that he kept an open mind while adhering to the predominant scientific data available at the time.
The journals also track Fauci’s interactions with state and local officials over health mandates. In mid-March 2020, Fauci described conversations with then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and an official from California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office regarding school and business closures. By August 2020, Fauci noted that reopening schools ought to be the “default position,” adjusted for local infection rates, while warning against blanket reopening mandates. In May 2021, he criticized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s outdoor mask guidelines as “ultra-conservative,” writing that “our credibility is going to be attacked” unless the guidelines were eased.
Additionally, the writings cover Fauci’s shifting political relationships and high public profile. Fauci documented growing friction with then-President Donald Trump in late 2020, characterizing Trump’s statements as “erratic” and describing arguments between them. In July 2021, Fauci reflected, “Only now in retrospect do I fully appreciate what a disaster Trump was as President.” Conversely, Fauci described a July 2021 Oval Office meeting under President Biden by writing that “seriousness, dignity, and integrity … now permeates the entire White House.”
Fauci also chronicled his sudden transition into a public media figure, referencing television portrayals, consumer merchandise featuring his likeness, and widespread public commentary. In an entry dated May 21, 2020, Fauci wrote, “It is not hyoperbole to say that today I am the most famous and talked about person in the country and one of the most recognizable peson in the world.”
READ: Joint U.S.-Saudi Airstrikes Kill 20 Militia Fighters In Iraq After Iranian Missile Attacks
Please make a small donation to the Tampa Free Press to help sustain independent journalism. Your contribution enables us to continue delivering high-quality, local, and national news coverage.
Sign up: Subscribe to our free newsletter for a curated selection of top stories delivered straight to your inbox.
