Dr. Anthony Fauci dodged more than 100 questions about Covid, the lab leak theory and its ties to Wuhan during a historic Congressional hearing Monday.
House Republicans who questioned the ex-White House adviser said he was “playing semantics” with the definition of risky gain of function research on dangerous viruses to avoid admitting to dangerous research in China that is feared to have caused the pandemic.
Dr. Fauci, 82, also admitted that he signed grants worth millions of dollars without reviewing the proposals and failed to confirm that the agency he led had crucial oversight of the foreign labs his former agency funded.
The all-day investigation on Monday will be followed by another seven hours of questioning behind closed doors on Tuesday.
Fauci is accused of concealing his role in funding potentially deadly experiments believed to have caused the pandemic, and suppressing scientific opinions that differ from the mainstream that claimed all signs point to the cause leaking from such labs , and not that there is a spillover from animals to humans.
Dr. Fauci’s testimony behind closed doors is expected to be heated, as in previous hearings. In the past, Dr. Fauci has clashed with lawmakers, including Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, over his alleged cover-up of funding for gain-of-function research and the Covid lab leak theory.
Ohio Republican Congressman Brad Wenstrup, who is leading the hearings, said: “Dr. Fauci today exposed drastic and systemic flaws in America’s public health systems.
“It is clear that the American people and the American government are operating with starkly different expectations about the responsibilities of our public health leaders and the responsibility of our public health authorities.”
According to the House Select Committee on Coronavirus, Dr. Fauci said he could remember key details of the answer “more than 100 times.”
The Republican Party also said he was backtracking on his earlier insistence that the US not fund experiments that could make viruses more transmissible or dangerous, known as gain of function research.
The Marathon Testimony of Dr. Fauci has been a long time coming. The House of Representatives coronavirus subcommittee forced him to appear before members nearly a year ago, but the finer details were only finalized late last year.
Congress, especially Republicans, has criticized Dr. Fauci’s policies to curb the spread of Covid in the early days, including flip-flop advice on masks and the closure of schools and businesses.
Since his last appearance before Congress over a year ago, it has been revealed that Dr. Fauci oversaw the approval of risky coronavirus research in China and signed grants worth millions of dollars.
EcoHealth Alliance – a controversial research organization of a New York research group led by British scientist Peter Daszak – helped distribute much of that grant money.
The organization received $8 million in NIH grants between 2014 and 2021, which it outsourced to research facilities.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology, where researchers conduct gain-of-function research into coronaviruses, received more than $3 million of that money for a project titled: Understanding The Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.
In December 2022, Dr. Andrew Huff, the former vice president of EcoHealth Alliance, whistleblower and said he believed the grant funding provided to the organization by the NIH was related to the “creation of SARS-CoV-2.”
Dr. Huff claimed that the pandemic was the result of the US government’s funding of dangerous genetic engineering of coronaviruses in China.
Meanwhile, Fauci apparently walked back his earlier claims that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, which he headed from 1984 to 2022, had never allocated government money to risky virus research.
He had insisted to senators last summer that his former department “has never funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and does not now.”
Yet recently published emails dated February 1, 2020 showed that Fauci acknowledged that “Wuhan University scientists have known to have worked on gain-of-function experiments to determine that molecular mechanisms associated with bat viruses that adapt to human infections, and that the outbreak in Wuhan.”
New emails dated February 1, 2020 show that Fauci acknowledged that “Wuhan University scientists are known to have been working on gain-of-function experiments to determine that molecular mechanisms associated with bat viruses adapt to human infections , and that the outbreak originated in Wuhan’
He also could not confirm whether NIAID has protocols in place to properly monitor the foreign labs that receive federal dollars.
Representative Wenstrup said, “While he led the nation’s response to COVID-19 and influenced public narratives, he simultaneously had no idea what was happening under his own jurisdiction at NIAID.
‘Dr. Fauci signed off on all domestic and foreign research grants without reviewing the proposals and admitted he did not know whether NIAID had oversight of the labs they fund.”
Lawmakers had put together hundreds of pages of questions for the former White House medical adviser before starting Monday
Dr.’s transcript Fauci’s first day of testimony has not been made public, but given the tense atmosphere of previous hearings before congressional committees, the meetings on Monday and Tuesday are expected to become heated.
Rep. Wenstrup said, “I look forward to seeing Dr. Fauci further questions about mandates, his role in creating the Proximal Origin publication and his policy positions on masks and lockdowns.
“(Tuesday’s) testimony will continue the Select Subcommittee’s efforts to provide the answers Americans demand and deserve.”