Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is scheduled to testify before Congress on Monday morning to discuss his role in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The hearing before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic comes near the conclusion of the subcommittee’s investigation into the origin of the virus and the rationale behind controversial government policies during the pandemic, including lockdowns, social distancing, and mask and vaccine requirements.
Fauci played a key role in pandemic policy for the Trump and Biden administrations and was a central figure in the early science on the source of the virus.
Fauci was the director of NIAID from 1984 until he stepped down in 2022. Monday’s hearing is his first public appearance since his retirement.
Here are the top three things to watch for during the hearing:
Fauci is likely to be asked extensively about the work of his senior adviser, David Morens, who utilized his personal email address for government business related to the origins of COVID-19 to avoid Freedom of Information Act requests.
Morens had a close personal relationship with Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance, a subgrant awardee from the National Institutes of Health that used federal funds to conduct bat coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.
Morens corresponded with Daszak extensively via Gmail when EcoHealth’s grant was terminated by the Trump administration in 2020, aiding in its eventual reinstatement. Fauci’s senior adviser also gave Daszak sensitive information about FOIA requests for the grant.
The Department of Health and Human Services has begun debarment proceedings against EcoHealth and Daszak personally after that step was deemed “necessary to protect the public interest.”
Subpoenaed email communications from Morens to Daszak reveal that Morens may have discussed the grant and sensitive information regarding the origins of COVID-19 with Fauci via a Zoom call to avoid FOIA searches.
“We are getting FOIA’d non stop,” Morens wrote to Daszak in April 2021. “So it’s most important that Tony not have anything on the record that could come back to bite.”
Mask mandate policies and social distancing are likely to divide subcommittee members along partisan lines.
During Fauci’s transcribed interview with the subcommittee in January, the leading infectious disease expert said the science on mask mandates is “still up in the air.”
Fauci insisted in the transcribed interview that he “didn’t flip-flop” on his masking position but rather that his position changed as more was learned about the virus.
During the early stage of the pandemic, Fauci said there “was not any good evidence that outside of the hospital setting that a mask is effective in preventing the acquisition or transmissibility.”
However, this changed, according to Fauci, over the long term, and even tattered cloth masks offered “some protection” compared to no masks at all, although they offered less protection than KN95 or N95 respirator masks.
Fauci also told the subcommittee that he did not have any scientific evidence for the precise number of 6 feet for social distancing during the early stages of the pandemic.
“It just sort of appeared,” Fauci said in his interview. “I don’t recall, like, a discussion of whether it should be 5 or 6 or whatever.”
Fauci’s endorsement of the COVID-19 vaccines will likely be a flashpoint for the subcommittee hearing.
Several members of the subcommittee, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), have denounced the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines for their various side effects, including rare cases of myocarditis and blood clots.
Fauci was asked by the subcommittee in his transcribed interview about his statement in May 2021 that the vaccine makes the patient “a dead end to the virus” and that the vaccine was essential to preventing community spread.
The infectious disease expert defended his statements by saying they were accurate at the time he made the remarks but became less accurate over time as the virus mutated.
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“Right now, vaccines do not necessarily protect very well at all against infection,” Fauci said in January. “But the ability to protect you from getting into the hospital is still pretty strong.”
Legal counsel for Fauci denied the Washington Examiner’s request for an interview prior to the hearing.