Fauci declines to answer Senate questions on Covid origins

Former top US health official Anthony Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment during a hearing before a Republican-led Senate committee about the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic on Wednesday. The constitutional amendment protects individuals from being compelled to testify against themselves in criminal cases.

Fauci, who previously led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), cited Republican Senator Rand Paul's release of his diary entries as one reason for not answering questions. "Although it pains me to do so because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government ... under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the constitution to refrain from answering your questions," Fauci said.

Fauci noted he had previously testified under oath before several Congressional committees, but Paul's "obvious obsession" with pushing for his prosecution led him to refuse this time. "The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something - anything - that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, 'behind bars,'" Fauci said.

Paul continued questioning Fauci despite his refusal. During opening remarks, Paul claimed Fauci's diary entries contradicted what he told the American public about the virus's origins. Paul suggested that while Fauci publicly said Covid originated naturally, he privately believed it came from a lab. The senator has repeatedly promoted the lab-leak theory linking the virus to China's Wuhan Institute of Virology. Many scientists favor the "animal spillover" theory, meaning the virus jumped from an animal to a human. However, no definitive evidence has settled the debate.

Fauci's diary entries show he was open to both natural origins and a lab leak early in the pandemic before leaning toward natural origins. In a February 2020 entry discussing a conference call, Fauci noted doctors did not have "total agreement" on the virus's origin. Later, he wrote he "is almost certain that the virus evolved naturally from a species jump, even though… I keep an open mind about the possibility of a lab leak." He added, "just because two alternatives are possible that does not mean that they are equally probable."