Four years after the Covid-19 pandemic began, the nation’s former top infectious disease official Anthony Fauci appeared on Monday before a panel of lawmakers to defend his response to the pandemic.
Lawmakers sparred over the definition of gain-of-function research, how well the Covid-19 vaccine prevents transmission of the virus, and whether the NIH researchers should receive royalties from drugmakers for products they helped create. The hearing was part of the committee’s months-long investigation into the origins of Covid-19.
Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), who helms the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis and is himself a doctor, came down hard on Fauci over his leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic. Wenstrup asserted that Fauci shut down genuine questions over the Covid-19 vaccine and that he hasn’t given enough weight to the theory that the virus came from a lab.
“Americans do not hate science, but Americans know hypocrisy when they see it,” Wenstrup told Fauci.
Ranking member Raul Ruiz (D-CA) pushed back against several Republican-pushed assertions that Fauci has lied about gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China, and that the NIH funded gain-of-function research from the NGO EcoHealth alliance, which now faces a government-wide suspension of US taxpayer funds.
“After 15 months, the select subcommittee still does not possess a shred of evidence to substantiate these extreme allegations that Republicans have levied against Dr. Fauci for nearly four years,” he said.
Fauci pushed back on Wenstrup and other lawmakers’ insistence that he conspired to shut down the lab-leak theory, saying he’s always kept an “open mind” regarding the origins of Covid-19.
Lawmakers also pressed Fauci on how he communicated with David Morens, senior scientific advisor at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Emails produced by the select subcommittee showed that Morens appeared to use his personal email and delete emails to evade public records requests.
Fauci said he may have used his personal email to communicate with Morens regarding research they worked on outside of their official capacity, but that he never did official business from his personal email address.
Fauci also responded to multiple questions about royalties that NIH researchers receive from drug companies for products made to respond to the pandemic. He said that the only royalty he’s received is an $122 annual payment for a monoclonal antibody he helped develop years ago.
“If you want to change the patent laws and the Bayh Dole Act, then go ahead,” he said. “That’s not for me to say.”