Former Chief Medical Advisor and Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH), Dr. Anthony Fauci, appeared before the House Oversight Committee to answer questions about his role in the COVID-19 pandemic, questions that ranged from the virus's origins and supposed attempts to suppress it to policies and mandates put in place during the ensuing pandemic.
Florida Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) dismissed claims by Republicans of Fauci and officials under him intentionally hiding the lab leak theory from the public, pointing to Fauci's 14-hour, two-day hearing in January that discussed a wide range of topics such as research, preparedness, and vaccine development.
"I want the public to know that for five months, Republicans sat on that transcript. They could have released it at any time. It was released last Friday. If the public had seen it five months ago, they would know that the Republicans failed to find a shred of evidence of their far-fetched conspiracy linking Dr. Fauci to a coverup of the origins of the pandemic. Instead, the Republicans contorted and mischaracterized Dr. Fauci's words over Twitter to gin up conspiracies about the [National Institute of Health's] role in the origins of the pandemic," said Rep. Castor.
During Rep. Castor's questioning, Fauci also explained that his comments about the 6-foot social distance rule "just appearing" meant they had no controlled clinical trial because they initially believed COVID spread via droplets and not through air.
Representative Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) focused more on the aftermath of COVID, asking Fauci if he believed the United States has emerged from the pandemic stronger and better prepared for the next major health crisis.
Fauci said he was mostly disappointed by the divisiveness of the response and the need for more communication between state, local, and Federal bodies.
"No question about that," said Rep. Moskowitz, "I saw the lack of investment in technology. We had states trying to share information with the Federal government using Windows 2000 or fax machines. And so we spent $7 trillion in two packages in two administrations, and one of my concerns is that I feel, especially in the supply chain, I feel like we are not much better off than we were before COVID."
Representative Michael Cloud (R-TX) was more critical of Fauci.
He began by asking Fauci if church, business, and school closures, as well as mask and vaccine mandates, remain justified.
Fauci replied that the mask and closure mandates were justified at first in the early days of the pandemic when many Americans were dying. Rep. Cloud pointed out that policies did not change as more data became available, saying, "Time after time, again, people's lives were destroyed, and we have not seen the same sort of- once the new data became available, we did not see a change of course."
"When the science began to change again, we all understand that in the first couple of weeks, even a couple of months, we were all trying to figure it out, I think there is a lot of grace for that. The concern is that as the science became available, it was not like, 'Oh, maybe we should consider the lab leak theory. Oh, maybe we should consider natural immunity.' We never heard this messaging coming from you or anyone else who stood on the sidelines talking about these things, and it has left the American people with a tremendous distrust," said Rep. McCloud.
Representative Ronny Jackson (R-TX) took his time to decry Fauci and his supposed aid in covering up the lab leak theory of COVID-19's origin.
"It was obvious to everyone that you and your organization, the NIH, had a lot to lose if the American people were to discover that COVID-19 was most likely leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China and that you, via EcoHealth Alliance and Peter Daszak actually funded this research and that this lab was actively and recklessly conducting gain of function research," said Rep. Jackson.
He then reviewed a series of apparent pieces of evidence suggesting that various health officials had hidden evidence of the lab leak.
"Dr. Fauci, history will not be kind to you, and you will be known as the man who put his personal interests before the interests of the American people, the very people that you were supposed to be protecting. Your actions, along with several others we have had before this committee, have completely eroded America's trust in our public health system and the agency that you represented for half a century," Jackson concluded.
