WASHINGTON – Dr. Anthony Fauci defended his decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic on Monday, testifying before Congress about his work on the virus as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during two presidencies.
House Republicans who convened the hearing questioned Fauci during the contentious three-hour session about the origins of COVID-19, which has killed more than 1 million Americans, as well as Fauci’s role in the response. It was the first time Fauci, 83, who also served as President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, has appeared before Congress since leaving government service in 2022.
Fauci has repeatedly said he did not conduct his official business by private email, responding to allegations that he did so to avoid oversight. He also said he remained open-minded about the origins of the virus and explained to members of the Special Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic why policies changed so much in the early months of the pandemic.
“When you’re dealing with a new outbreak, things change,” Fauci said. “The scientific process gathers the information that allows you to make a decision, recommendation or policy at that time.”
“As things evolve and change and you get more information, it’s important that you use the scientific process to get that information and potentially change your thinking, your policies and your recommendations,” Fauci added.
Republicans on the panel repeatedly asked Fauci how the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China received funding from the U.S. government and whether it or another lab could have developed COVID-19. That theory conflicts with another that says the virus emerged from a “spillover event” at an outdoor food market.
Fauci testified that it was impossible that the viruses being studied at the Wuhan Institute under an NIH grant could have caused COVID-19, but he did not rule out that the viruses came from elsewhere.
“I can’t explain what else could be going on in China, and nobody can explain that. That’s why I’ve always said and will say now that I’m unbiased about the origin,” Fauci said. “But one thing I know for sure: The viruses that were funded by the NIH cannot be phylogenetically the precursors of SARS-CoV-2.”
Fauci added that the $120,000 grant, which initially went to another organization before going to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, was only a miniature part of the budget.
“If they wanted to do something on the side, they would have plenty of other money to do it. They wouldn’t necessarily have to use a $120,000 NIH grant to do it,” Fauci said.
The NIH subcontract to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, he testified, “funded research into surveillance and the possibility of emerging infections.”
“I would not call it dangerous gain-of-function research,” Fauci said. “I have testified to this many times.”
In recent years, politicians have used several, often changing definitions for gain-of-function research. The American Society for Microbiology writes in a two-page explanatory text that it is “used in research to alter the function of an organism so that it can do more than before.”
save lives
The measures taken in the early months of the pandemic were critical to saving lives, Fauci said. Those steps included encouraging people to keep their distance, wear masks and get vaccinated once the vaccine was approved.
Fauci said that if health authorities had simply allowed the virus to roam the country without any precautions or safety measures, “there would very likely have been another million people [who] would have died.”
Information about the COVID-19 vaccine will be communicated promptly, he said. This includes details on whether the vaccine will stop the spread of the virus entirely or will work primarily by limiting severe disease and hospitalizations.
The issue is particularly “complicated,” Fauci said, because data from the very beginning of the vaccine rollout showed that the vaccination “prevented infection and, as a result, of course, transmission.”
“It is important to point out, however, that something we did not know initially and that became clear over the months was that the duration of protection against infection and therefore against transmission was relatively limited – while the duration of protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death was longer,” Fauci testified.
“We didn’t know that at the beginning,” he added. “Initially, it was believed that it actually prevented infection and thus transmission. But over time it turned out that this effect was not permanent.”
Republican members of the subcommittee, as well as representatives from other committees, repeatedly questioned Fauci about allegations that he avoided using his official email address to evade Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for such communications.
Fauci vehemently denied the allegations and said he had “never used his private email address for official purposes.”
Death threats
Michigan Democratic Representative Debbie Dingell asked Fauci during the Hear about the threats he and his family have faced over the past few years, especially since misinformation and disinformation about COVID-19 has spread.
“There were credible death threats that resulted in the arrest of two people. And credible death threats mean that someone was obviously on their way to kill me,” Fauci testified.
Fauci, his wife and three daughters have received harassing emails, text messages and letters. Fauci said he feels “terrible” when people attack his family because of his work in public health.
“I’ve had to use protection services virtually 24/7,” Fauci testified. “It’s caused me a lot of problems.”
One of the most critical Republicans on the panel, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, brought the hearing to a halt during questioning by refusing to address Fauci as a doctor and instead calling him “Mr. Fauci.”
Greene also claimed that Fauci should be in prison, although she presented no evidence of actual crimes, nor has any police department or law enforcement agency charged him with a crime.
Jamie Raskin, a Democratic representative from Maryland and ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, which includes the subcommittee, said repeated Republican investigations into Fauci’s conduct show that “he is an honorable public servant who has dedicated his entire career to public health in the public interest. And he is not a comic book supervillain.”
Raskin later apologized to Fauci for several Republican lawmakers treating him like a “convicted felon,” before seemingly pointing out that former President Donald Trump, the likely Republican presidential nominee, is a convicted felon.
“In fact, you probably wish they would treat you like a convicted felon. They treat convicted felons with love and admiration,” Raskin said. “Some of them blindly worship convicted felons.”
