Rand Paul releases Anthony Fauci’s COVID diary entries ahead of hearing : NPR

Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., has released a collection of diary entries by Dr. Anthony Fauci from the COVID-19 pandemic, totaling 1,141 pages. These entries, made public over the weekend but later removed from the website, precede Fauci’s upcoming testimony before a Senate committee on Wednesday. The release underscores the longstanding dispute between Fauci, former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and some politicians over the virus’s origins.

Throughout the pandemic, Paul and Fauci, a prominent figure in the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force, have publicly disagreed over how the virus began. Despite Fauci stepping down from NIAID in late 2022, Paul has persisted in his “investigation into the origins of COVID-19 and risky taxpayer-funded life sciences research.”

Paul shared a series of posts on X on Saturday, detailing the release of what he termed Fauci’s diary entries from December 2019 to December 2022. He wrote, “What [Fauci] wrote privately and what he told the country are two different stories.”

Neither Fauci nor Paul responded to NPR’s request for comment before the report was published.

Felicia Goodrum, a virologist from Dartmouth College, commented from the American Society for Virology meeting in Minneapolis, suggesting that Fauci might have been more uncertain in private discussions with colleagues, as they were pressed to understand the new virus while addressing a public in panic.

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This discussion emerges before a planned hearing on Wednesday with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, led by Paul. Paul subpoenaed Fauci, alleging that Fauci had informed the committee of his unwillingness to appear voluntarily. Lawmakers are set to question Fauci on his knowledge during the unfolding pandemic.

What is Rand Paul looking to hear from Anthony Fauci?

Paul and Fauci have long debated the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19. Fauci argues that scientific evidence supports a spillover event, where the virus moved from an animal to a human and spread from there.

Supporters of this theory highlight the Wuhan wet market, where potentially infected animals were sold. According to Goodrum, “There’s very good evidence that there are two lineages [of SARS-CoV-2] that emerged,” both present at the market along with susceptible animals.

Goodrum notes that the market was cleared before samples could be collected, but genetic data links all initial cases to the market, with none to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which some have accused of creating or releasing the virus.

A survey published in February 2024 by the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute, a nonpartisan U.S.-based think tank, indicates that most virologists support this view.

Paul, however, promotes a different explanation, suggesting that the possibility of the virus being engineered in a lab cannot be dismissed. During a Senate committee hearing two years ago, Paul stated, “Do we know for certain it came from the lab? No, but there’s a preponderance of evidence indicating that it may have come from the lab.”

In late 2024, a Republican-led Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released a final report asserting that a lab leak was the most likely origin of SARS-CoV-2. They suggested NIH funds might have supported research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology to enhance the virus’s potency or transmissibility, a process known as gain of function.

However, Robert Garry, a virologist at Tulane University, challenges this reasoning, stating there’s “no actual evidence for it.” He adds that no entity, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology, possessed a precursor virus similar enough to SARS-CoV-2 to have created the pandemic-causing pathogen.

Paul continues to allege that Fauci, his associates, and certain federal agencies might have hidden evidence supporting the lab leak theory. He claims they “withheld and continue to conceal crucial information from both Congress and the public.”

NPR sought comments from Fauci regarding Paul’s remarks but did not receive a response before the article’s release.

What does Paul say these newly published diary entries reveal?

In his X posts, Paul highlights select excerpts from Fauci’s notes. He points to a January 26, 2020 entry, nearly two months before the World Health Organization declared a pandemic, where Fauci notes, “the first infection was in early December and was not connected to the market. … Now we know the market was not the source, it was the amplifier.”

Paul comments, “The wet market was already off the table in [Fauci’s] own private notes.”

However, in that same entry, Fauci adds, “Having said that, somewhere the virus jumped from animals to humans.”

In another entry from February 1, 2020, Fauci lists researchers involved in a call discussing COVID-19’s origins, specifically whether a key part of the SARS-CoV-2 genome could have evolved naturally.

According to Fauci’s notes, only two scientists supported a natural origin. “The rest felt that deliberate insertion was possible,” referring to the lab-engineered hypothesis.

Paul responds on X, “This was never a 50/50 room,” implying that early on, scientific consensus considered a lab leak plausible.

Goodrum explains that this meeting occurred very early, with limited data available. She emphasizes that science evolves, requiring time to reach conclusions. Initial beliefs often change as new evidence emerges.

Goodrum suggests that Fauci may have been more cautious in private discussions than in public statements, where he needed to reassure a panicking public during the pandemic’s early days.

What happens next?

Fauci and Paul are set to confront each other publicly on Wednesday when Fauci testifies before Paul’s committee. Paul is expected to question Fauci about his diary entries and particular issues raised in his X thread.

Fauci might address the questions as before, explaining his and his colleagues’ thought processes during different pandemic phases.

Fauci has previously dismissed questions about unfounded pandemic claims. In an August 24, 2021 diary entry, he wrote, “More conspiracy theory like letters keep coming in from congressmen and senators trying to link us to the origin of COVID-19. This is an amazing and unbelievable waste of our time.”

Paul counters in his weekend thread, claiming such inquiries aren’t a waste but rather “it’s oversight.”