Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday that he never tried to squelch lab leak theories about the origins of the coronavirus, distanced himself from a senior adviser who bragged about defying transparency laws and rebuffed Republicans who said he should have spoken out against the 6-foot social distancing rule.
Dr. Fauci, the face of America’s response to COVID-19, admitted in public testimony to Congress that there was no basis for the 6-foot rule but said it wasn’t his place to clear that up. He said that was a decision for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“It was their decision to make — and they made it,” Dr. Fauci told a House subcommittee investigating the pandemic response.
In sometimes combative testimony, he said his success over decades leading the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was in laying the groundwork for the vaccines, which were developed unfathomably quickly and saved hundreds of thousands of lives in the U.S. and millions of lives worldwide.
He vigorously rejected the idea that American money his agency sent for bat research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology helped spawn the pandemic. Even if the virus came from a Chinese lab, he said, it couldn’t be traced to U.S. money.
“I keep an open mind as to what the origin is. But the one thing I know for sure is that the viruses that were funded by the NIH phylogenetically could not be the precursor to SARS-CoV-2,” Dr. Fauci told lawmakers.
SEE ALSO: Fauci said it wasn’t his job to stop unproved 6-foot rule during pandemic
In 2020, Dr. Fauci regularly downplayed the idea of a lab leak, indicating that it wasn’t the scientific consensus. In one interview, he said the evidence “strongly indicates” that the virus evolved naturally and jumped to humans.
Another time, from the White House lectern, he cited a research paper that discounted “any type of laboratory-based scenario.”
He said Monday that the research paper resulted from an episode in early 2020 when some scientists suggested that the virus responsible for COVID-19 was manipulated in a lab. He then participated in a conference call with experts. After more work, the scientists concluded that the lab leak wasn’t likely.
Now, several major U.S. agencies say the lab leak is the most likely explanation.
Dr. Fauci insisted Monday that he kept “an open mind throughout the entire process.”
In his most striking testimony, Dr. Fauci challenged his employee, Dr. David Morens, senior adviser to the director of NIAID, who said in emails that he had ways to sneak information to Dr. Fauci without worrying about Freedom of Information Act demands. In one email, Dr. Morens said, he had a “back channel” directly to Dr. Fauci.
SEE ALSO: MTG tells Fauci he should be prosecuted for ‘crimes against humanity’
“I don’t have any idea what he’s talking about. There is no back channel at NIAID,” Dr. Fauci testified.
He said Dr. Morens, with whom he co-authored scientific papers, was not part of his inner circle and did not have walk-in access.
Dr. Fauci was making what could be a legacy-shaping appearance before Congress. He retired from government in December 2022 after nearly 40 years running NIAID, shepherding the U.S. through HIV, the bird flu, Zika, Ebola and the coronavirus. COVID-19 and the use of government power to shut down schools and businesses and insist on vaccinations remain deeply controversial.
“You became so powerful that any disagreements that the public had with you were censored on social and most legacy media,” said Rep. Brad Wenstrup, the Ohio Republican who leads the subcommittee. “This is why Americans became so angry.”
The social distancing rules were a major part of that.
Republicans blamed those rules for shuttering schools and businesses and said the effects still seep through society, with students struggling to make up for years of virtual learning.
Dr. Fauci recently said the 6-foot rule had no scientific basis but “sort of just appeared.”
He said the rule was developed during the early days when researchers thought the virus was chiefly transmitted by droplets. It later became clear that the virus was aerosolized, which undercut the idea behind the distance rule.
“When I say ‘was not based in science,’ I meant a prospective clinical trial to determine whether 6 foot was better than 3 was better than 10,” Dr. Fauci said on Monday.
Rep. John Joyce, a Pennsylvania Republican and a physician, wondered why Dr. Fauci didn’t speak up at the time. He said it fueled “the fracture of trust in American scientists.”
Dr. Fauci said it was the CDC’s call and it wouldn’t have been right “to be publicly challenging” the system.
He said the government’s decision-making was necessary when as many as 5,000 Americans daily were dying and added that it does make sense now to ponder some of the non-public health consequences of the shutdowns.
Dr. Fauci said the trouble with tailoring mandates is that it’s not always clear who would benefit, and the dangers to some populations don’t become clear until later.
He acknowledged the problems that resulted from vaccine mandates and the surge in hesitancy and said these issues need to be considered in decision-making.
“We need to reevaluate the cost-benefit ratio of those types of things,” he said.
Rep. Raul Ruiz of California, the top Democrat on the panel, said the hearing and questions about Dr. Fauci were intended to “deflect” anger away from President Trump’s handling of the initial months of the pandemic.
Mr. Ruiz said Mr. Trump’s behavior could be linked to as many as 400,000 “unnecessary COVID-19 deaths.”
He said Democrats are not afraid of following the facts and have been outraged by EcoHealth Alliance, the firm that broke federal rules by the way it handled taxpayer funding of the Wuhan lab and by Dr. Morens’ claims.
He said that shouldn’t taint the broader efforts to combat the pandemic.
“We are now faced with a crisis of confidence in the very science and public health interventions that lifted our society from one of the most challenging periods in our nation’s history,” Mr. Ruiz said.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, said that skepticism should be blamed on Dr. Fauci. For most of her questioning, she refused to call him “doctor.”
“You’re not doctor; you’re Mr. Fauci,” she said. “That man does not deserve to have a license. As a matter of fact, it should be revoked and he belongs in prison.”
She called for Congress to draw up criminal charges.
“We should be recommending you to be prosecuted. We should be writing a criminal referral because you should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. You belong in prison,” she said.
Democrats objected and demanded she be punished. Mr. Wenstrup, who was chairing the hearing, said no punishment was appropriate but directed Ms. Greene to “recognize the doctor as a doctor.”
Dr. Fauci told lawmakers he still receives death threats over his pandemic work.
“Every time someone gets up and says I’m responsible for deaths of people throughout the world, the death threats go up,” he said.
He said it’s the sort of thing that will discourage prospective researchers from going into public health.
“We’re not getting the best people coming in because of their reluctance to put themselves and their families through what they see their colleagues going through,” Dr. Fauci said.
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.