Former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared in front of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability in January to testify on COVID-19, the transcripts of which were recently released.
The congressional committee shared a memo detailing the significant elements of Fauci’s closed-door interview.
Fauci was asked, “Do you recall when discussions regarding, kind of, the at least a 6-foot threshold began?”
The doctor said he could not remember when the policy began. “It just sort of appeared,” he stated. “I don’t recall, like, a discussion of whether it should be a 5 or 6 or whatever…”
Fauci was then asked if there were any scientific studies supporting the social distancing mandate, to which he said, “I was not aware of studies (…) that would be a very difficult study to do.”
The congressional report noted that the federally supported social distance program “was likely not based on any science or data.”
“This guideline made it nearly impossible for schools nationwide to re-open due to the pressure from teachers’ unions to follow this guideline,” the committee wrote in the memo. “In addition, businesses had to adapt at great cost or risk complete closure,” adding that the rule was “largely arbitrary.”
Fauci also told the congressional committee that he was “not aware of any evidence supporting the masking of children, and that it’s still ‘up in the air’ whether mask-wearing was associated with learning loss and speech development issues in children,” according to the memo.
When asked if he reviewed studies supporting masking children, the former NIAID director said he did not recollect the matter adding that he believes “there are a lot of conflicting studies too, that there are those that say, yes, there is an impact, and there are those that say there’s not. I still think that’s up in the air.”
During the interview, Fauci also acknowledged that the lab leak hypothesis for the origins of COVID is not merely a conspiracy. He described that a lab leak is a “possibility,” noting that one must have an “open mind” on the subject.
Other significant takeaways from the interview were admissions of vaccine hesitancy as a result of the mandates and Fauci’s failure to clarify the meaning of “gain-of-function” research in an effort to conceal the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) involvement in the controversial research.
Fauci’s former senior advisor, David Morens, has also been condemned by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic due to his alleged attempts to “[undermine] the operations of the U.S. government.”
Mores is believed to have “unlawfully” deleted federal COVID-19 information, used his “personal email” to avoid the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and acted “unbecoming of a federal employee.”
The committee believes Fauci was “aware of Dr. Morens’s nefarious behavior and may have even engaged in federal records violations himself,” the committee said.
