Fauci said, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases The president, who served for four decades until his retirement in 2022, faced tough questioning from Republicans on a House subcommittee investigating the nation’s coronavirus response.
The committee has been investigating the origins of the virus and recently Fauci’s roleThe 83-year-old immunologist began drawing the ire of conservatives in 2020 when he publicly rejected the views of former President Trump.
Fauci said The public face of the pandemic He has testified under both the Trump and Biden administrations, but Monday marked his first time testifying about COVID-19 before a Republican-led committee.
He said it was “completely absurd” to allege he had tried to influence research being conducted by leading scientists into the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus or pressured them to downplay the possibility that it came from a Chinese laboratory.
Fauci has been public about it for some time now. Open-minded There is debate over whether the virus emerged naturally or escaped from a lab, but he argues that the evidence for natural origin is stronger.
“There has been a widespread accusation that I bribed scientists with millions of dollars in grants to change their minds, which is completely false and completely absurd,” Fauci said.
He also explained that the idea of a lab leak is not in itself a conspiracy theory.
“A conspiracy theory is a distortion of a particular subject, as if I parachuted into the CIA like Jason Bourne during a lab leak,” Fauci said.
Republicans with Fauci Eco Health Allianceand agency aides who deleted emails to evade federal public records laws. Fauci quickly distanced himself from senior adviser David Mullens, whose emails revealed the fraud attempt.
“Senior officials in your office have personally discussed in writing violating federal law, deleting public records and sharing private government information with grant recipients,” said Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), the subcommittee chairman.
The Subcommittee: Amazing bipartisan cooperation While that hasn’t been the case recently, Monday’s hearing was divided along partisan lines from the start.
