Anthony Fauci addresses COVID-19 controversies on Capitol Hill

By Eleanor Laise

Top infectious-disease expert says he has 'kept an open mind' on lab-leak theory

Top infectious-disease expert Anthony Fauci addressed some of the COVID-19 pandemic's most heated controversies during a Monday hearing on Capitol Hill.

Fauci, who retired as the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in late 2022, faced questions on the origins of the coronavirus, the rationale behind social-distancing guidelines, the merits of vaccine mandates and other issues from the Republican-led House Committee on Oversight and Accountability's coronavirus pandemic subcommittee.

"I have always kept an open mind to the different possibilities" regarding the origin of the virus, including the possibility that it resulted from a lab leak, Fauci told lawmakers. Responding to accusations from some Republicans that he tried to cover up the possibility that the virus could have come from a lab leak, Fauci said, "The truth is exactly the opposite." He quoted from an early 2020 email that he sent to a medical researcher voicing support for a group of evolutionary biologists to examine the data and determine whether lab-leak concerns were valid.

If that investigation were to generate agreement about the lab-leak concern, Fauci wrote in the email, the researchers "should report it to the appropriate authorities," such as U.S. and United Kingdom intelligence agencies. "It is inconceivable that anyone who reads this email could conclude that I was trying to cover up the possibility of a lab leak," Fauci told lawmakers Monday.

Monday's hearing comes more than a year into the coronavirus subcommittee's probe of the pandemic's origins, which included 14 hours of closed-door testimony from Fauci in January of this year. The subcommittee released a transcript of that testimony on Friday, along with a memo from Republican staff members highlighting certain pandemic-era policies that they described as insufficiently supported by scientific evidence.

The memo quoted Fauci saying during the closed-door testimony, for example, that the six-foot social-distancing guideline "sort of just appeared. I don't recall, like, a discussion of whether it should be five or six or whatever."

Fauci clarified during his testimony Monday, however, that the guideline came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and not from his office. The CDC made the recommendation based on research, he said, although there wasn't a controlled trial to compare various distancing guidelines.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland, linked the Republican allegations against Fauci with the "big lie" that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. The people who supported the "political big lie," Raskin said during the hearing, "now bring you the medical big lie, making the outlandish claim that Dr. Fauci was responsible for causing COVID-19." Republicans' own investigation, he said, "debunks their runaway political rhetoric."

Monday's hearing comes as new public health threats are emerging, including the bird-flu outbreak in U.S. dairy cows. In their own memo released Monday, the subcommittee's Democratic staff said they remain focused on strengthening future pandemic prevention and preparedness.

Fauci on Monday also described how accusations against him have resulted in threats against him and his family members. "There have been credible death threats leading to the arrests of two individuals," Fauci said. "And 'credible death threats' means someone who clearly was on their way to kill me." The threats continue today, said Fauci, who retired nearly a year and a half ago.

-Eleanor Laise

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06-03-24 1447ET

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