Just a few years ago, during the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci was celebrated by the mainstream media and Democrats as the reassuring gold standard of medical advice about masking, vaccines and social distancing.
Nowadays, Dr. Fauci, 85, has been reduced to invoking the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times in a Senate hearing rather than explain his actions under oath. The formerly loquacious and ever-present media star decided, under subpoena, that he has the right to remain silent.
His stonewalling may not help him. A Senate committee has scheduled a vote to hold Dr. Fauci in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer lawmakers’ questions.
Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican and chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, wanted answers from Dr. Fauci on whether the U.S. funded risky research at the virus lab in Wuhan, China, that is at the center of suspicion about the origin of the pandemic. And Mr. Paul said he wanted to get into the decision-making in the U.S. about the rejection of some treatments, while pushing for the quick deployment of experimental vaccines.
Dr. Fauci, who ran the infectious diseases unit at the National Institutes of Health, said Mr. Paul has been waging a years-long vendetta trying to put him “behind bars” by trapping him into saying something that would get him prosecuted. Hence his silence.
Before the hearing, Dr. Fauci’s detractors in government released years of unredacted entries from his diary. Among the revelations, Dr. Fauci believed the “lab leak” theory but called it far-fetched in public.
He pushed for school closures while denying involvement. He stifled disclosure of the vaccine’s ineffectiveness. He hid his own possible injury from the vaccine, never disclosing that he suffered from a pulmonary infarction in June 2021, five months after receiving the COVID-19 shot.
And he reveled in his newfound celebrity.
Dr. Fauci was granted a sweeping blanket pardon by President Biden for past actions, immunity that Mr. Paul said should have cleared him to speak to the committee.
The lack of answers didn’t deter Republicans from attacking him repeatedly.
Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican, said Dr. Fauci committed a crime by soliciting cash awards from the U.S. government during the pandemic — and recruiting his official staff, paid through taxpayer dollars, to assist in the effort.
He received more than $1 million in awards, the senator said, despite a law that prohibits using federal resources to solicit awards.
“A million people dead, you’re getting rich. A million people dead, you’re using federal employees to get cash awards for you. A million people dead, and you’re here taking the Fifth,” Mr. Hawley said.
On the same week as the muted Fauci showdown in Congress, the Health and Human Services Department announced a new policy banning federal funding for “dangerous” gain-of-function research — a kind of risky experiment that enhances viruses to try to predict how dangerous they might become.
Some analysts believe gain-of-function experiments in the Wuhan virus lab are behind the coronavirus.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the new approach — a risk-based model — still leaves room for research on vaccines and other medical tools.
“The federal government has a duty to protect the American people — not fund research that could put them at risk,” he said in a statement. “We are ending federal support for dangerous gain-of-function research and replacing weak oversight with clear, enforceable safeguards.”
Amid the Fauci fallout, President Trump, who had clashed with him in his first term, said he told us so. He said he warned Mr. Biden early in his term about Dr. Fauci.
“I called Biden to tell him Fauci was no good, either didn’t have a clue, or was dishonest,” Mr. Trump said on social media. “The call was well received, but sadly, not acted on. Biden went on to give Fauci vast destructive power. The rest is history!”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, Alabama Republican who is running for governor, promised to keep hounding Dr. Fauci if he takes over the reins of his state’s government.
“I went through dozens of hearings when I first got here in 2021 with Fauci basically lying through his teeth to the American people and all over the world,” Mr. Tuberville said. “Some of my friends died from COVID. And he might’ve got a federal pardon, but he didn’t get a state pardon.”
