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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, returned to Capitol Hill on Monday (June 3) to testify at a House subcommittee hearing about the origins of the COVID-19 virus and the United State's response to the pandemic.
Dr. Fauci tried to get ahead of the questions during his opening statement, in which he denied trying to silence scientists and public officials who believed the virus was created in a lab in Wuhan, China.
"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 said 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."
"I have repeatedly stated that I have a completely open mind to either possibility and that if definitive evidence becomes available to validate or refute either theory, I will ready accept it," Fauci added.
Fauci was grilled by Republican lawmakers about the pandemic response and defended the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for recommending social distancing, wearing masks, and stay-at-home orders that resulted in nationwide lockdowns that saw schools, churches, and non-essential businesses closing down.
"This was when we were trying to stop the tsunami of deaths that were occurring early on – how long you kept them going is debatable," Fauci said in reply to questions from Rep. Michael Cloud of Texas, about the scientific evidence behind the policies.
"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," Fauci said when asked about his previous comment that there was no scientific evidence behind the CDC's recommendation to stay six feet away from people in public. "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."
At one point, the hearing was interrupted by a woman screaming at Dr. Fauci. She was told to leave, or she would face arrest. She then gathered her belongings and left without further incident.