Former White House Chief Medical Adviser Anthony Fauci will discuss the origins of COVID-19, vaccination requirements, and situations like the COVID-19 pandemic in an upcoming closed-door Congressional meeting, the chairman said. He said he will once again face questions about how to prevent it from happening again. Members of the committee leading the investigation.
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic announced in November that Fauci had agreed to two days of taped interviews on January 8 and 9. Fauci is expected to testify before the committee later this year, but a date has not yet been set.
Subcommittee Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) told The Hill that the interview serves as an “after-action review” of the federal government's actions during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Then he spoke.
“We want to learn some lessons and hopefully be able to suggest ideas for moving forward. And one of the things I keep saying is that in the future, the next pandemic… “It would be great if we could predict, prepare for, protect ourselves from, and even prevent pandemics,” Wenstrup said.
“We will give Dr. Fauci's testimony as it relates to the origins of the coronavirus, the impact of vaccination mandates, gain-of-function research, and scientific censorship where scientific censorship occurs.” I think that's a very important element of the research that we're doing.'' That seems to have happened. ”
Wenstrup focused on the cover-up theory put forward by Republicans on the subcommittee, saying that Fauci and former National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins have told researchers that they have no knowledge of the new virus over possible lab leaks. They pointed out that this suggests that he encouraged people to write papers supporting the natural origin theory of coronavirus infection.
Fauci and Collins participated in a conference call with researchers in February 2020 to discuss the possible origins of SARS-CoV-2. Last year, the selection subcommittee heard from two of the researchers on that particular paper: in which they testified Fauci and Collins said little during the conference call, had no influence on the paper, and were there primarily to gather information.
Mr. Fauci talked about before Regarding the call, he said his role in organizing it was proof that he was open to the lab leak theory. Last year, Fauci said of his own views on the origins of the coronavirus: keep an open mind Although he did mention where the virus came from, he did mention “accumulating evidence” that supports a natural origin.
Fauci resigned from his government job at the end of 2022 after serving as a prominent source of guidance and information during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. He then joined the Georgetown University School of Medicine as a Distinguished Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases.
The former government researcher will undergo two seven-hour interviews over two days of talks with the subcommittee. His two personal lawyers and two government lawyers will also be present for the interview.
Wenstrup said the meeting will be a “roundtable” or “scientific discussion” in which the subcommittee's majority and minority will exchange hours of question time.
“We all need to hold ourselves accountable, including Congress, but this is an opportunity for our people.” [Fauci] To hold ourselves and others accountable for our successes and failures along the way,” Wenstrup said. “Congress has oversight responsibility on behalf of the American people, so they should be open about what they've done and said.”
Asked who he would like to interview further in the future, Wenstrup said, “There are about five Chinese scientists I would like to talk to,” but added that the Chinese embassy was not interested in his request.
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