Anthony Fauci’s high-profile Senate hearing: what we learned

1. Rand Paul’s 'unhinged obsession' with Fauci

The hearing was centered around an assertion Paul has promoted for years: that the Covid pandemic began in 2020 as a “leak” from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, even as virologists see a natural jump from animals to humans as more likely.

This belief underpinned Paul’s argument for bringing Fauci before the committee. If the pandemic was indeed started by a “lab leak”, Fauci “could be responsible for this entire pandemic” because the National Institutes of Health (NIH) provided the institute with a sub-grant, he later told reporters.

His only witness was Fauci, who served as a key adviser to Trump and Joe Biden during the pandemic, and has become a political punching bag on the right.

Paul has interrogated Fauci in the past. Fauci appeared at Senate hearings at least a dozen times, according to his attorneys, and answered lawmakers’ questions. Fauci described Paul’s investigation as an “unhinged obsession” with seeing him “behind bars”, and one that had led to starkly different advice from his attorneys this time around.

“Although it pains me to do so, because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government and my decades-long record of cooperating with Congress, under the advice of my attorneys I will invoke my right under the fifth amendment of the constitution to refrain from answering your questions,” said Fauci.

Paul appeared to know Fauci would do this. The senator had a copy of a law which he claimed compelled Fauci to testify ready to hand to him.

2. Criticism of scientists continues

Scientists have not witnessed Fauci’s compelled testimony – he only appeared on Capitol Hill on Wednesday under subpoena – without dissent. A group of 155 scientists wrote an open letter calling for the government to stop the “vilification and harassment of many American scientists”.

“The charges against Dr Fauci are baseless, suggesting he covered up the origins of Covid, that he bribed or persuaded other scientists to join his cover-up, that Niaid-funded research sparked the pandemic, that he personally holds patents on the virus, and that he’s working with intelligence agencies to suppress the true story of the pandemic,” the letter stated.

“No credible evidence has been produced to support these absurd charges.”

3. Paul’s frustration with fifth amendment

Whether or not Fauci can successfully invoke the fifth amendment of the US constitution – which allows Americans to decline to answer questions that could incriminate them, without repercussions – became a part of the hearing itself.

Fauci received a presidential pardon before Biden left office. Recent presidential pardons from Trump and Biden have led to renewed debate about whether the amendment can be invoked when a witness appears before federal lawmakers post-pardon.

Visibly frustrated by Fauci’s assertions, Paul told him: “There will be repercussions to your refusal to testify today.”

Later, Paul told reporters he intends to call a vote for contempt of Congress next week, in the committee on homeland security and security and governmental affairs where Fauci appeared.

His Republican colleague, Josh Hawley of Missouri, later joined in. “You don’t have any rights under the fifth amendment,” he said. “This is about contempt: contempt for this body and contempt for the American people.”

4. Republican criticism of Fauci wide-ranging

Republicans lined up to attack Fauci. Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson accused him of covering up unfavorable information about Covid vaccines, which he described as “experimental gene therapy”, even after scientists credited them with saving millions of lives.

Republican senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio demanded Fauci apologize for a military policy that required service members to take the Covid vaccine, to Americans who lost businesses during the pandemic, and to a single Ohio mother who was arrested for not wearing a mask during an outdoor football game early in the pandemic. The senator called Fauci a “total and complete disgrace”. Republican Joni Ernst of Iowa criticized use of aborted fetal tissue in research.

Democratic senator Gary Peters of Michigan argued the hearing was a bid to “turn one person into a scapegoat for a crisis that hundreds of officials across the Biden and Trump administrations’ were responsible for handling”, warning: “This is only going to deter other scientific experts from public service.”

5. Criticizing science important for Republicans

The Trump administration has invoked the “lab leak” theory to criticize past pandemic policies – even as the party has asserted that the end of the pandemic justified cutting $11.4bn state and local health department funding.

Disruptions to government funding that imperiled critical research into cancer and Alzheimer’s are justified as ridding the government of a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion.

Canceling grants based on political priorities, trialled at the National Institutes of Health in 2025, are now the basis of a proposed rule that would bring the $1tn entire federal grant-making apparatus under the control of political appointees.

Wednesday’s hearing was another example of how criticizing scientists has become an important outlet for the party – and where relitigating the Covid crisis justifies skepticism of a broad range of science.

“For the past 18 months, the Trump administration has been engaged in a campaign to rewrite this history,” said senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat of Connecticut, about the darkest days of the pandemic, when hospitals overflowed and researchers worked on hyper-speed to understand the virus. “Today’s proceeding, I fear, is part of that effort.”