The Worst Lies of Anthony Fauci’s Testimony

Dr. Anthony Fauci was at it again on Monday. 

Fauci testified before the House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, where questioners sought answers from the combative former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. His testimony took on enhanced importance after the release of emails from his top advisor, Dr. David Morens. Morens' emails frequently discussed how he would use his private email to avoid FOIA requests, discussed a "secret back channel" to Fauci, as well as how he and others would hide any "smoking guns" from the public.

READ: New Emails Show How Anthony Fauci And NIH Worked To Mislead The Public

The cozy relationship between Fauci's top advisor and Peter Daszak, one of the central figures within the lab leak discussion, reasonably prompted renewed questions as to just how much Fauci and NIH knew and when they knew it. Thanks to Fauci's disinterest in transparency, disregard for the truth and disavowal of his own past remarks, the hearing provided plenty more examples of just how duplicitous and dishonest the nation's leading public health "expert" is.

White House Chief Medical Adviser on Covid-19 Dr. Anthony Fauci (R) looks on as US President Joe Biden tours the Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, February 11, 2021. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Anthony Fauci Directly Contradicts Anthony Fauci In Congressional Testimony

Much of the questioning of Fauci focused on the potential for the coronavirus to have come out of the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The very same Wuhan lab that conducted gain of function research, including some research that was supported by grant money from Fauci's NIAID through Daszak's EcoHealth Alliance.

The lab leak, despite being the most likely source of the pandemic, was disputed by Fauci and a team of allied scientists early in 2020. An infamous phone call that Fauci participated in, helped lead to the release of a paper claiming to debunk that possibility. Just a few days after those same scientists admitted privately that virus looked "engineered" and could easily have come from the lab.

Fauci then used that inaccurate paper, that he himself prompted, according to one of the authors, to go on a media campaign saying that the virus had a natural origin.

READ: Fauci ‘Prompted’ Release of Paper Inaccurately Debunking Lab Leak, According to New Evidence

And campaign he did. 

In a 2023 discussion with the Council on Foreign Relations, Fauci once again referenced the debunked paper, saying that he believed the evidence "strongly" showed the virus had a natural origin.

"What I do feel strongly about is that one is much more probable than the other because if you look at the data that has been accumulated by unbiased, highly competent, and internationally recognized evolutionary biologists and virologists, they have done a study, both of which were published in the peer-reviewed journal, Science, strongly indicating that this was a spillover from an animal species to a human in the wet market," Fauci said. Except these scientists were not "unbiased," they had a vested interest in downplaying the lab leak theory. In fact, Peter Daszak was intimately involved in ensuring that the very papers Fauci references as "strongly" suggesting natural origin were released and disseminated in the media.

Yet during his testimony on Monday, Fauci said he supports ensuring that Daszak never receives any federal money again.

Not so "unbiased" anymore, is it?

He also claimed that he had nothing to do with a "cover up" on the possibility that the virus came from the Wuhan lab.

"The accusation being circulated that I influenced these scientists to change their minds by bribing them with millions of dollars in grant money is absolutely false and simply preposterous. I had no input into the content of the published paper," Fauci claimed in his opening statement. "The second issue is a false accusation that I tried to cover up the possibility that the virus originated from a lab. In fact, the truth is exactly the opposite."

He even condescendingly responded to Rep. Jim Jordan, saying he always had an "open mind" as to origins of COVID.

Yet in interview after interview, he said the exact opposite. He told Jim Acosta on CNN that he was "strongly suggesting that it was a natural occurrence." He repeatedly used that word, "strongly," in interviews with Meet the Press, Christiane Amanpour and others.

Now he says he kept an "open mind" and supports defunding Peter Daszak. As always, Fauci is ready and willing to contradict past versions of Fauci. Then get smugly defensive while claiming he never said what he's on record saying. 

Fauci Defends Mask Mandates, Vaccine Mandates

He also faced questions about the scientific justification behind mask mandates, vaccine mandates and lockdown orders.

And instead of pointing to bodies of research behind those measures, or more accurately, admitting they were extraordinarily harmful failures, Fauci once again inaccurately defended himself from criticism.

When pressed about the justification for masking kids, he deflected. "There was no study that did masks on kids before," Fauci admitted. "You couldn’t do the study. You had to respond to an epidemic that was killing 4-5,000 Americans a day." 

Except you don't "respond" with measures that don't work. That's exactly what he did. Without a care for how much harm would be inflicted on children from forced universal masking for several years. Not to mention that this rationale was never mentioned during the early days of the pandemic. Instead, Fauci claimed that everything he demanded and recommended was based on the best available evidence. Except in 2024, he admits he had no evidence; it was all guesswork in the vague hope that it would stop people from dying.

How many adult lives would Fauci expect to be saved from forcing children to mask? He never faces such questions. And has no answers for them.

Similarly, he defended business closures and lockdowns on the vague hope that unproven policies would save lives. "Again, this was when we were trying to stop the tsunami of deaths that were occurring early on," he said. "How long you kept them going is debatable." 

That's another disingenuous lie from Fauci. His advocacy ensured that these measures kept going. He frequently criticized politicians for reopening businesses, schools and lifting mask mandates. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was a repeated target, drawing Fauci's ire in 2020 when he opened bars and restaurants at full capacity.

"Well that is very concerning to me, I mean, we have always said that, myself and Dr. Deborah Birx, who is the coordinator of the task force, that that is something we really need to be careful about," Fauci said on ABC's "Good Morning America, "because when you’re dealing with community spread, and you have the kind of congregate setting where people get together, particularly without masks, you’re really asking for trouble. Now’s the time actually to double down a bit."

DeSantis ignored him, and Florida outperformed the national average in age-adjusted COVID mortality. 

This is what Fauci does; he acts as if he had nothing to do with policy, when he repeatedly advocated for those policies in national television interviews and in conservations with politicians. 

Then in perhaps the most damning portion of the testimony, Fauci was actually confronted with a recording of his own words. In an audiobook interview, Fauci can be heard forcefully advocating for corporations and schools to impose vaccine mandates and make life "difficult" for anyone who didn't want to take COVID vaccines. He said it's been "proven" that when people are excluded from society, they "lose their ideological bulls*** and get vaccinated."

In the hearing though, Fauci then backed off, saying not all objections to the COVID vaccines were "bulls***" and claiming it wasn't the context he was referring to. 

Unreal. It's classic Fauci, claim his remarks, presented in context, were taken out of context. What choice does he have after being caught in inexcusable lie after inexcusable lie?

There are obviously any number of very reasonable reasons to decline COVID vaccines. But Fauci doesn't accept deviation from his demands, thus anyone who contradicted his wishes is engaging in "ideological bulls***." Except ironically, that's exactly what he did and does.

"The CDC was responsible for those kinds of guidelines for schools, not me. So when I said that, it just appeared. It appeared. Was there any science behind it? What I meant by no science behind it is that there wasn't a controlled trial. That said, compare six foot with three feet with ten feet. So there wasn't that scientific evaluation of it. What I believe the CDC used for their reason to say six feet is that studies years ago showed that when you're dealing with droplets, which at the time that the CDC made that recommendation, it was felt that the transmission was primarily through droplet, not aerosol, which is incorrect because we know now aerosol does play a role. That's the reason why they did it. It had little to do with me since I didn't make the recommendation." 

But Fauci repeatedly said how important six feet of distancing was in interviews and discussions. Yet again, he's deflecting blame onto others while ignoring the role he played in spreading disinformation. It was obvious COVID would have aerosol transmission, because other respiratory viruses like the flu are spread via aerosols. 

Finally, he defended his egomaniacal remarks about representing science, saying, "I am a scientist who uses the scientific method to gain information."

But scientists admit when they're wrong, learn from new information, don't silence dissent or misrepresent the certainty behind their statements. Fauci did all of those things and much, much more. He's the opposite of scientist. And Monday's testimony proved it, yet again.