Fauci pushes back partisan attacks in fiery House hearing over COVID origins and controversies

(ASSOCIATED PRESS) Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert until leaving the government in 2022, was back before Congress on Monday, calling “simply preposterous” Republican allegations that he'd tried to cover up origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A GOP-led subcommittee has spent over a year probing the nation's response to the pandemic and whether U.S.-funded research in China may have played any role in how it started — yet found no evidence linking Fauci to wrongdoing.

He'd already been grilled behind closed doors, for 14 hours over two days in January. But Monday, Fauci testified voluntarily in public and on camera at a hearing that quickly deteriorated into partisan attacks.

Republicans repeated unproven accusations against the longtime National Institutes of Health scientist while Democrats apologized for Congress besmirching his name and bemoaned a missed opportunity to prepare for the next scary outbreak.

“He is not a comic book super villain,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., saying the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic had failed to prove a list of damaging allegations.

Fauci was the public face of the government's early COVID-19 response under then-President Donald Trump and later as an adviser to President Joe Biden. A trusted voice to millions, he also was the target of partisan anger and choked up Monday as he recalled death threats and other harassment of himself and his family, threats he said still continue. Police later escorted hecklers out of the hearing room.


The main issue: Many scientists believe the virus most likely emerged in nature and jumped from animals to people, probably at a wildlife market in Wuhan, the city in China where the outbreak began. There’s no new scientific information supporting that the virus might instead have leaked from a laboratory. A U.S. intelligence analysis says there’s insufficient evidence to prove either way -- and a recent Associated Press investigation found the Chinese government froze critical efforts to trace the source of the virus in the first weeks of the outbreak.

[CasualMisinformationSpreader]

What is the point of this sideshow? They don't have to answer questions and everybody there knows nobody is going to jail.

[domfel]

if I had a cent for every vaccine they pushed I would be in Antigua!

[Iamdrjohnny]

What an evil psychopath to have at a dog and pony show.

[RobynonYouTube]

This guy reminds me of a “doctor” from Nazi Germany.

[masone]

Anything less than “crimes against humanity” charges is a failure

[TheBlackdiamond]

Fauchi will have to face god for all the deaths that were caused by his decision

[leewilliams]

Prison wouldn’t be enough of this man.

[Bugf]

And even today he lies about what he said and only cries for himself. What a POS.

[tc]

Why the inquiry. Go straight to prosecution and prove in court

[phoneuser]

He should be in jail along with everyone else who had a hand in this tyranny.

[appaloosa]

AF is the penultimate narcissist… made himself a hero by lying, gaslighting and blaming everyone except himself.
A hero in his own mind—- and he is mining his way into it phd.

[joeb]

bring out the distractions! main stream in panic mode.

[michaelthompson]

There is a deceased german doctor that would be very proud of this one!!!

[charliebrownie]

Anyone who believes what science has to say about anything they've got to suggest about anything.

[GeorgeCornell-qs]

Dr. Fasci is a Hero. What is wrong with these people.

[koRn]

Yeah yeah he'll have to face god, but so will Trump.