In his first public testimony since leaving government post at the end of 2022, Dr. Anthony Fauci on Monday deflected a variety of attacks from Republican politicians during a fiery hearing called to discuss lessons learned during the pandemic.
Fauci, who voluntarily appeared before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, denied a wide range of claims made against him in recent years.
Several members of the Republican subcommittee asked Fauci about funding for virology research in China that came from the National Institutes of Health and which he said he had approved. Some conspiracy theories suggest that such research led to the coronavirus leaking from a laboratory. Fauci also answered questions about whether his staff tried to conceal the nature of that investigation from the public.
In his opening statement, Fauci said it is possible the virus leaked from a laboratory. He said that given that the origins of the pandemic remain unknown, he personally remains open-minded. But he denied concealing relevant information about a possible leak.
“I don’t think the concept of a lab leak is inherently a conspiracy theory,” Fauci said. “What is a conspiracy is the kind of distortions of that particular subject, like it was a lab leak and I was dropped into the CIA like Jason Bourne and told the CIA that they shouldn’t really talk about a lab leak. That’s the conspiracy.”
The subcommittee did not provide any evidence linking Fauci to the origins of the coronavirus.
Fauci has emerged as one of the people most vilified by supporters of former President Donald Trump, with many blaming him for the pandemic based on a wide range of false or misleading claims. Calls to prosecute Fauci for unspecified crimes have become commonplace on the right.
In his testimony Monday, Fauci explained that he participated in a phone call with a dozen scientists in early 2020 in which they discussed the emergence of the virus and the possibility that it may have originated in a laboratory. Fauci said that after further investigation, members of that group concluded that the virus most likely passed from animals to humans.
“The accusation circulating that I influenced scientists to change their minds by bribing them with millions of dollars in grant money is absolutely false and simply ridiculous,” he said.
Fauci testified on the same topics before the same subcommittee during a closed-door hearing in January.
Before retiring, Fauci also testified many times before Congress about his leadership during the pandemic. He led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022 and served on then-President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force, as well as President Joe Biden’s Covid response team.
During Monday’s hearing, Democrats defended Fauci as a loyal public servant and accused Republicans of unnecessarily slandering him.
“Some of our colleagues in the United States House of Representatives seem to want to drag your name through the mud. They’re treating you, Dr. Fauci, as a convicted felon,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland.
But in a combative moment that caused consternation among several colleagues in the House of Representatives, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said Fauci belonged in prison and did not deserve to have a medical license. She added that Fauci’s medical guidance led to children being “muzzled” with masks in schools, and — in a strange move — accused him of signing off on experiments involving beagle torture.
As she left the hearing, Greene doubled down in her comments to NBC News.
“Fauci belongs in jail. He should be tried for mass murder, and he should be tried for crimes against humanity. That’s how I feel after that hearing,” she said.
Several Democrats apologized to Fauci for the insult.
“This might be the craziest hearing I’ve ever attended,” said Rep. Robert Garcia of California. “I have only been in Congress for a year and a half, but I am so sorry that you are being subjected to those hearings. level of seizures and madness.”
The Republican-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic has been investigating the origins of the coronavirus for months, with a primary focus on the possibility of a lab leak, as well as mask and vaccine mandates.
Much of Monday’s hearing focused on EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit research group that received U.S. government funding for pandemic prevention work. In May, the Department of Health and Human Services suspended funding for the organization after concluding that it had failed to adequately monitor research in which it was involved at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China and failed to provide the requested materials transferred time or submitted progress reports. .
Rep. Brad Wenstrup, an Ohio Republican and House subcommittee chairman, said Monday that Fauci’s leadership allowed EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak to use millions of taxpayer dollars to conduct risky experiments in Wuhan involving a coronavirus had to be adjusted.
Members of the subcommittee have alleged that EcoHealth Alliance has facilitated so-called gain-of-function research, in which a virus is improved to make it more transmissible. But EcoHealth Alliance has said its work did not meet the definition of such research.
Republicans also questioned Fauci’s relationship with one of his former aides, David Morens, who used personal email accounts to correspond with Daszak, a friend of his. Subcommittee members said some of Morens’ emails provide evidence he tried to circumvent public records laws.
Fauci said Morens had violated NIAID policy and that “as far as we know now” Morens’ communications with Daszak amounted to a conflict of interest.
But Fauci added that he has never conducted official business using his own personal email.
He also emphasized that no virus studied with funding from the National Institutes of Health could have developed into SARS-CoV-2.
Fauci is at the center of the extreme conspiracy theories that have circulated online since the pandemic began, said Cameron Hickey, CEO of the National Conference on Citizenship, a nonprofit focused on strengthening American democracy.
“Anti-vaccine activists see Anthony Fauci as a leader in the effort to spread lies about the origins of the pandemic, as a profiteer making money from the vaccine and as a power-hungry part of the ‘swamp’ that perpetuated unnecessary public opinion . health measures such as masking, isolation and social distancing,” Hickey said in an email.
Fauci said Monday that he and his family are still being harassed.
“There have been credible death threats, which have led to the arrest of two individuals – and credible death threats involve someone who was clearly on his way to kill me. And it requires me to have protective services almost all the time. It is very difficult for me. It’s much more difficult because my wife and my three daughters are involved,” Fauci said in a choked voice.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
