Dr. Anthony Fauci testifying to Senate panel on COVID origins after Sen. Rand Paul releases trove of diary entries

Paul’s office released more than 1,000 pages of journal entries by Fauci over the weekend. They span about three years, from December 2019 to the end of his time as National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director in December 2022.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Fox News the entries were retrieved from government computer servers in recent months.

Fauci’s writings document his response to the pandemic in real time.

Fauci on COVID-19’s origins:

Some of Fauci’s diary entries reflect early uncertainty about the source of the coronavirus that caused the pandemic. In January 2020, he wrote that “we know the market was not the source, it was the amplifier,” though he added that “somewhere the virus jumped from animals to humans.”

About a week later, he detailed a call with a dozen infectious disease experts, saying there “was not total agreement about the likelihood” that mutations to the virus were inserted by humans. He said two people on the call believed “this could occur naturally and we should not waste our time,” but “the rest felt that deliberate insertion was possible” and “we could not let this go.”

Paul has argued the diary entries demonstrate Fauci and his colleagues were privately entertaining theories about the origin of the coronavirus that they publicly dismissed.

Fauci has long insisted he kept an open mind on the lab leak theory and denied downplaying it or misleading the public.

Fauci on pandemic restrictions:

Fauci didn’t have the power to set COVD-19 restrictions, but his words carried weight.

In mid-March 2020, Fauci describes a conversation with then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio in which he “convinced him … to close the NYC schools” — a decision Fauci said de Blasio had already made based on Fauci’s public statements. He said he “had a similar call” with an official in the office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who planned to close schools and restaurants.

By August of that year, Fauci wrote that reopening schools should be the “default position,” but “one size does not fit all and decisions should be based on the level of infection in the community.” At the same time, he chafed at officials who wanted all schools to reopen at once.

In May 2021, Fauci was critical of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for its strict, “ultra-conservative” advice on outdoor mask-wearing, fearing that “our credibility is going to be attacked” if the CDC doesn’t “loosen up.”