Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and top adviser to two US presidents during the COVID-19 pandemic, “surprised” the chairman of the House subcommittee with “how much he did ‘t recall’ about the early days an epidemic that killed more than 1.1 million Americans.
Fauci, 83, has been “very cooperative” on the first day of his two days of transcribed interviews with the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) told reporters.
“We’re having a lot of conversations about developing research processes, for grants, oversight, if you will, regulations, and possible solutions for a better path forward,” Wenstrup said of the interview, which he had teased that the morning would include “more than 200 pages of questions and about 100 exhibits.”
Wenstrup also promised in a statement that panelists would “demand explanations for any pandemic-era failures” and “Fauci’s role as the face of America’s COVID-19 public health response,” predicting that the former NIH official’s testimony “will shed light on a topic that never been asked by the Committee, Members or news outlets before.”
“This is an opportunity for Dr. Fauci explains his position on COVID-19 policy. His forthcoming, honest, and transparent testimony over the next two days is critical to improving our nation’s future public health response,” the lawmaker said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci declined to answer questions from reporters on Monday when he arrived on Capitol Hill to be discussed by House lawmakers about his role in the US response to COVID-19. Getty Images The two-day, 14-hour testimony will include “more than 200 pages of questions,” House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) said. Getty Images
Wenstrup’s subcommittee has focused in particular on efforts by Fauci and former National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins to silence dissent over the so-called “lab leak theory” of the origins of COVID-19, obtaining internal communications from top health officials that revealed they have prompted scientists to author a paper in the journal Nature Medicine debunking the theory in early 2020.
The COVID panel also subpoenaed one of Fauci’s top advisers in October for “potentially using his personal email to delete original COVID documents and avoid [Freedom of Information Act] the law.”
Fauci and Collins both denied in testimony to Congress that the NIH had funded risky for-profit research at laboratories in Wuhan, China, where the outbreak began in late 2019.
Fauci, 83, ignored The Post’s questions as he was escorted by Capitol Police into the hearing room for his first transcribed interview since retiring from public service. Getty Images
The Government Accountability Office released a report in June 2023 that found the NIH had contributed more than $1.4 million to Chinese research institutions between 2014 and 2019 despite serious biosafety concerns, including at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The research “included genetic experiments to combine naturally occurring bat coronaviruses with the SARS and MERS viruses, producing hybrid (also known as chimeric) coronavirus strains,” the report states, and its funding has been cut.
Wenstrup said Monday afternoon that Fauci had given a “new definition” to “operational” profit research, a phrase that often describes experiments that make viruses more contagious and virulent.
“I don’t know that every scientist dealing with this type of virus research understands the definition,” the lawmaker said of Fauci
“He needs to define his definition of gain-of-function research, because, as I did, going through this process in the last three years, reading many, many articles published about gain-of-function research, or the creation of chimeras, this is new,” added Wenstrup .
“And it’s different from what many other scientists use when they report gain-of-function research.”
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) told reporters that Fauci had referred to her definition of “operation” when discussing her high-profile clash with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) over the topic at the 2021 hearing.
“We are looking forward to this. We have been waiting for this day for a long time,” Wenstrup told The Post when he arrived. Getty Images
“I think it’s probably a bit political that we’re here to begin with,” he told reporters outside the hearing room, but said the closed-door format would yield “a lot of answers.”
“This format doesn’t play the camera, it helps us get the facts and details,” Dingell said.
The House COVID subcommittee is also investigating Fauci’s influence on the US intelligence community about the origins of the outbreak after a whistleblower revealed that the director of NIAID secretly visited CIA headquarters in an effort to “influence” analysts who were later unable to determine whether SARS-CoV-2 leaked from the laboratory or transmitted from animals to humans.
Fauci declined to answer The Post’s questions about the whistleblower allegations when he reached for an interview Monday morning. He also didn’t stop talking as he left the interview room after 7pm
A June 2023 government report found the NIH contributed more than $1.4 million to Chinese research institutions from 2014 to 2019 despite biosafety concerns, including at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. AFP via Getty Images
Wenstrup also said he would ask Fauci about misleading information provided by the government about natural immunity to the coronavirus, his “flip-flopping position on the mask mandate, including for children” and the decision to close schools and impose business closures during the pandemic.
In addition, he said, Fauci will be questioned about receiving royalties and failing to disclose potential conflicts of interest during his nearly four decades as a public health official.
The former NIAID director, who said he donated all royalties, was at one point the highest-paid US government official and had a net worth of $11.5 million when he leaves government service in December 2022.
Fauci declined to answer The Post’s questions about his influence on US policy during COVID. Getty Images
Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.), the ranking member on the select subcommittee who has criticized Wenstrup’s approach in previous hearings, did not attend the proceedings.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), who also sits on the House COVID subcommittee, told reporters that no one had directly asked Fauci whether the US funded the Wuhan Institute of Virology but she expected Tuesday’s question to be answered on the subject.
“Dr. [Robert] Redfield came to our committee, and he specifically said not only did the NIH funding go to the Wuhan lab but [funding from] USAID, Department of State, Department of Defense” as well, said Malliotakis, referring to the former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“And the question is why? What are they using the money for? Do they conduct functional gain research? Did anyone contribute to the development of this virus?”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
