Dr. Anthony Fauci, a key figure in the federal government’s pandemic response, will testify before House lawmakers early next week.
It will be Dr. Fauci’s first public testimony since retiring in December 2022 as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Rep. Brad Wenstrup, Ohio Republican, has taken the lead as chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic and has aggressively scrutinized Dr. Fauci’s team at NIH that sought to conceal information about the COVID-19 pandemic from the public.
The upcoming hearing was prompted by the panel’s discovery last week that NIH senior adviser Dr. David Morens had deleted crucial records related to the origins of COVID-19.
The panel showed that Dr. Morens used a “secret back channel” to help Dr. Fauci and a federal grantee that funded risky research at a laboratory in Wuhan, China, evade Freedom of Information Act requests by improperly conducting official government business from his private email account.
“Retirement from public service does not excuse Dr. Fauci from accountability to the American people,” Mr. Wenstrup said in a statement. “On June 3, Americans will have an opportunity to hear directly from Dr. Fauci about his role in overseeing our nation’s pandemic response, shaping pandemic-era policies, and promoting singular, questionable narratives about the origins of COVID-19.”
Mr. Wenstrup also requested of Dr. Fauci on Wednesday access to his personal email accounts and cellphone records.
In January, Dr. Fauci, 83, appeared in front of the subcommittee for a closed-door, two-day, 14-hour transcribed interview.
According to Mr. Wenstrup, during Dr. Fauci’s closed-door session, he testified “to serious systemic failures in our public health system that deserve further investigation.”
This included his testimony that the 6-feet-apart social distancing guidance, which effectively shut down small businesses and schools across America, “sort of just appeared.”
“We also learned that Dr. Fauci believes the lab leak hypothesis he publicly downplayed should not be dismissed as a conspiracy theory,” Mr. Wenstrup said. “This raises significant concerns about public health officials and the validity of their policy recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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