Dr. Anthony FauciThe former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on Monday denied attempting to push the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic began as a result of a lab leak in Wuhan, China, during his opening statement before the House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic.
Lawmakers questioned Fauci during a hearing on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s six-foot distancing rule, mask wearing by schoolchildren and other pandemic-era restrictions.
When Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, asked whether closing businesses, closing churches, closing schools and issuing stay-at-home orders were appropriate, Fauci testified in the affirmative each time, adding that “again, this was when we were trying to stop the tsunami of deaths that was occurring initially — how long you kept those in place is debatable.”
Asked again about the mask mandate for others, including children under the age of five, Fauci said it was in the context of a time when “5,000 people were dying a day.”
The Congress member asked, “Is it mandatory for children below five years of age to wear masks? Is there scientific evidence to support this?”
“There were no studies done before this on putting masks on kids. You couldn’t do a study. You had to deal with a pandemic that was killing 4-5,000 Americans a day,” Fauci said.
Fauci attempted to clarify an earlier statement that the six-foot distancing rule “just came about,” telling committee members that “it actually came from the C.D.C.”
“The C.D.C. was responsible for such guidelines for schools, not me. So when I said that, that came up. That came up. Was there any science behind it? What I meant by no science behind it was that there were no controlled trials. It said, compare six feet to three feet and compare it to ten feet. So there was no scientific evaluation of it. I believe the reason the C.D.C. came up with saying six feet is that studies done years ago have shown that when you’re dealing with droplets, at the time the C.D.C. made this recommendation, it was felt that transmission occurred primarily through droplets, not through aerosols, which is incorrect because we now know that aerosols play a role. That’s why they did it. It had nothing to do with me because I didn’t make this recommendation.”
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Fauci also defended vaccination mandates for students, staff, and the military, saying, “Vaccines save lives. It’s very clear that vaccines have saved millions of lives in Americans and millions of lives around the world.”
“Initially, it clearly prevented infection in a small percentage of people, but its ability to prevent infection did not last long. It was measured in months,” he said.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-GA, pushed back on previous comments Fauci made during an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” when he claimed that those who criticize him “are actually criticizing science because I represent science.” Asked if he represents science, Fauci testified, “I’m a scientist who uses the scientific method to get information.”
Greene also criticized Fauci for signing off on scientific experiments involving beagles.
Dr. Anthony Fauci is sworn in prior to testifying before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic at the Rayburn House Office Building on June 3, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Greene, who said she is a dog owner, said, “Mr. Fauci, the type of science you are presenting is disgusting and must be stopped.”
The congresswoman briefly debated etiquette with other lawmakers as she insisted she would not call Fauci “doctor.”
“In my time, that person doesn’t deserve to have a license. In fact, it should be revoked. And he should be in jail,” he said.
In his opening statement, Fauci emphasized to the committee that he never attempted to suppress the COVID-19 lab leak theory.
He testified that on January 31, 2020 he was “informed via phone call with Jeremy Farrar, then director of the Wellcome Trust in the UK, and then with Kristian AndersonA highly respected scientist at the Scripps Research Institute said he and world-class evolutionary biologist Eddie Holmes from Australia were concerned that the genomic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 “suggests the virus could be manipulated in the laboratory.”
The next day, Fauci said, he participated in a conference call with about a dozen international virologists to discuss “this possibility versus the possibility of spread from an animal reservoir.” Fauci described the conference call discussion as “lively with arguments for both possibilities” and said two participants testifying before the House subcommittee on coronavirus said they “did not try to steer the discussion in either direction.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci sits to testify before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in the Rayburn House Office Building on June 3, 2024. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“It was decided that after this further investigation many of the participants would examine the genomic sequence more carefully. Many who were previously concerned about lab manipulation became convinced that the virus had not been intentionally manipulated. They concluded that the most likely scenario was spread from an animal reservoir, although they still kept an open mind,” Fauci said. “They published their opinions appropriately in the peer-reviewed literature.”
“The allegations that I influenced these scientists to change their minds by giving them millions of dollars in grant money are completely false and absurd. I had no contribution whatsoever to the content of the published paper,” Fauci said in his initial statement. “The second issue is the false accusation that I tried to hide the possibility that the virus came from a lab. In fact, the truth is quite the opposite.”
The Republican-led subcommittee has spent more than a year investigating the nation’s response to the pandemic and whether US-funded research in China played a role in the outbreak. Democrats opened the hearing, saying the investigation so far had found no evidence Fauci did anything wrong and missed a crucial opportunity to prepare for the next catastrophic outbreak.
In January, Fauci faced 14 hours of questioning over two days by a House committee behind closed doors.
He is being questioned again on Monday, publicly and in front of cameras, for the first time in more than five decades of government service.
This time, he will face a slew of new questions about the credibility of his former agency, the National Institutes of Health. Last month, a House panel revealed emails from an NIH colleague that detailed ways to evade public records laws, including not discussing controversial issues on government emails.
Two theories have emerged about the origins of the pandemic. The first theory, supported by the government, was that the virus probably emerged in nature and passed from animals to people, possibly at a wildlife market in the city of Wuhan, where the outbreak began. The second suggested that the virus probably originated in nature and passed from animals to people. leaked from the lab,
Dr. Anthony Fauci arrives to testify before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic at the Rayburn House Office Building on June 3, 2024. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“I have repeatedly stated that I keep a completely open mind to any possibility, and if conclusive evidence becomes available to validate or refute any theory, I am prepared to accept it,” Fauci said in his opening statement for Monday’s hearing.
Republicans have also accused Fauci of lying to Congress when he denied in May 2022 that his agency funded “gain-of-function” research — the practice of growing a virus in a lab to study its potential real-world impact — A laboratory in Wuhan,
This is a developing story. Check back for updates. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
