The formerly highly influential and now retired health bureaucrat Anthony Fauci has testified before the United States Congress several times. His testimony before the Senate on 29 July 2026, however, ended differently from previous occasions.
Republican senators such as Rand Paul pressed him quite hard. Fauci objected to the recent publication of his unedited personal diary from the Covid period. After a brief opening statement, he then refused to answer a single question put to him. He would not even answer what colour his tie was.
Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment 111 times, which means refusing to answer a question that could incriminate oneself.
The diary was located on a public server and was lawfully released on the orders of Senator Rand Paul.
A Senate subcommittee has also obtained a copy of Fauci’s mobile phone from the Covid period, which could potentially shed new light on his handling of Covid-19. Senator Ron Johnson (R), chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Homeland Security, confirmed on X that the committee ‘has obtained a copy of Dr Fauci’s phone from [the Department of Health and Human Services]’.
Senator Ron Johnson states: ‘Our investigation of Dr Anthony Fauci’s mobile phone has only just begun. We have already recovered 34,000 text messages, 522 voicemails and 3 contacts – spanning from 2014 to a few days before Fauci left the NIH. We will continue to review every piece of evidence to bring the truth to the American people.’
Some of his supporters, such as the author Ian Buruma, believed that Fauci’s treatment was unfair:
‘This confrontational hearing centred primarily on the origins of the coronavirus. Fauci believes that the virus passed from animals to humans. His critics – particularly the Republican Senator Rand Paul, who was formerly an ophthalmologist – argue instead that the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. The institute’s experimental research was partly funded through grants from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), channelled through an intermediary non-profit organisation. Both sides have accused the other of lying. As part of a broader investigation, Rand Paul released a selection of Fauci’s diary entries from this period. They reveal that he took a certain pleasure in being a national celebrity. But that is only human. And since Fauci was dealing with a virus about which very little was initially known, he may have given advice that later had to be revised. One can hardly blame him for that – that is how science works. Perhaps Fauci was sometimes a little too self-confident. Perhaps he was also a little vain. But nothing can excuse the Republicans’ conduct during Fauci’s hearing. Paul and several other Republicans mocked, jeered and shouted at the 85-year-old doctor. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri called Fauci a “megalomaniac” and a “liar” before accusing him of profiting from his public service. Senator Rick Scott of Florida joined the verbal lynching: “You forced people to die alone without their loved ones and destroyed the federal government’s credibility when it comes to public health.” In his closing remarks, Paul speculated that Fauci “late at night” must lie awake wondering whether his actions led to “the greatest man-made plague in history” and whether “his experiments” had caused millions of deaths.’
Buruma writes that ‘Congress’s oversight function is undoubtedly important to the governance of the country, as Fauci also acknowledged in his opening statement. But the undisguised hostility from those questioning him was extraordinary. This was not merely political theatre. It was a public shaming – a pillory. Although it was unwise of Fauci to write his personal diary on a government-owned computer, exposing his private thoughts – and making them an object of ridicule – was an attempt at public humiliation.’
But Fauci has proved to be a liar on many matters, including extremely important questions relating to the alleged safety and efficacy of the Covid vaccines. He and other key figures repeatedly stated in the mass media that the coronavirus vaccines would stop the spread of the coronavirus. That was a 100% lie. The so-called vaccines never stopped the spread of the virus and had not even been tested for this. The authorities effectively held their own citizens hostage until most of them had been pressured into taking experimental injections.
Fauci also had critics during the Covid period, and some of them were vocal. He responded to this in an interview in November 2021:
‘And when I see people spreading misinformation and lies that can actually put people’s lives at risk, but it is also very easy to pick out an individual and make that person a target, because that is what people can focus on. But you are talking about systems, you are talking about the CDC, you are talking about the FDA, you are talking about science in general. So if they want to – I mean, anyone who looks carefully at this realises that there is a distinct anti-science undertone here. So if they stand up and criticise science, no one will know what they are talking about. But if they stand up and really direct their attacks at Tony Fauci, well, then people can recognise that there is a person there. There is a face, there is a voice you can recognise, you see him on TV. So it is easy to criticise, but they are really criticising science, because I represent science. That is dangerous.’
The fact that Fauci personally identified himself with science is almost comical in retrospect, were it not for the many people he harmed, injured or killed with his measures. The lockdowns destroyed many small businesses and deprived children of the opportunity to attend school.
His decision to give the ineffective and dangerous drug Remdesivir to Covid patients, while denying them safe and effective treatments such as Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine, actively killed large numbers of people. So did his promotion of the so-called Covid vaccines, perhaps the deadliest pharmaceutical products in modern medical history.
But when one looks at his personal diary from this period, it appears that Fauci scarcely thought about the many flesh-and-blood people harmed by his policies. He was mainly preoccupied with himself in an extremely narcissistic and banal manner. Anthony Fauci loved being on television and being among the most famous people in the world.
The US Department of Justice in April 2026 indicted a former senior adviser to Fauci for allegedly destroying and concealing evidence from the investigation into the origins of Covid-19. David M. Morens is an American physician and researcher who for many years was a senior adviser to the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a government institute that conducts medical research. For almost four decades, from 1984 until December 2022, Anthony Fauci was the director of NIAID.
Neurologist and professor Halvor Næss points out that no individual represents science, and it was repeatedly clear during the Covid period that Fauci often had agendas other than scientific integrity:
‘What is interesting now is that Fauci often writes something different in his diary from what he claimed publicly. He repeatedly lied in public. He claimed that the virus came from the wet market in Wuhan and enlisted well-known virologists to write an article that categorically rejected claims that the virus had leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan. In his diary, however, he was open to the possibility that the virus resulted from a leak, which to many already seemed quite likely in the winter of 2020, and in light of the diary the article must be described as an anti-scientific scandal. He publicly claimed that coronavirus infection had a mortality rate of around 2%, while in his diary he wrote that the mortality rate was more likely around 0.2%, which in retrospect has proved fairly accurate. He publicly argued for closing schools, while in his diary he wrote that school closures were a mistake. The diary shows that he argued for locking down society even though he subsequently says that this was not the case. In the winter of 2020 he publicly opposed closing national borders, but later believed it was necessary. In the winter of 2020 he argued against the use of face masks, but later became a leading advocate of their use. The diary shows that the requirement for “social” distancing (six feet in the USA and one metre in Norway) was not based on scientific studies. It simply “appeared”. When the vaccines were unleashed, he was publicly critical of natural immunity, but in his diary he writes that natural immunity is real. Recommended guidelines for respiratory pandemics (influenza) before March 2020 did not recommend lockdowns, school closures, border closures, face masks and “social” distancing, as these measures had negative consequences but little or no benefit.’
The article ‘The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2’ was published in the respected journal Nature Medicine on 17 March 2020. Fauci was not among the official authors, but released emails have shown that he and NIH director Francis Collins pulled the strings behind the scenes. They privately suspected that the coronavirus originated from the laboratory in Wuhan, but publicly stated that it had a natural origin. Fauci and his co-conspirators thus used a respected scientific journal to lie to the entire world. Six and a half years later, Nature has still not retracted this article.
Fauci and his associates had personal motives for diverting public attention away from the laboratory-leak theory. Fauci had for years supported dangerous ‘gain-of-function’ research in the USA, including by supporting people such as Ralph S. Baric in their work on genetically manipulating coronaviruses. When they encountered opposition to this in 2014, gain-of-function research was effectively outsourced to Wuhan in China. Fauci continued to use US public funds for this, which were channelled to China through EcoHealth Alliance.
It appears increasingly likely that this led directly to the creation of Covid-19. The spike protein of the Wuhan coronavirus shows strong signs of having been genetically manipulated with the intention of making it more infectious and harmful to humans. This virus eventually spread globally, probably through an accidental release from a laboratory with poor security. Anthony Fauci thus spent the years 2020, 2021 and 2022 advising on how to deal with a virus whose development he himself had partly financed.
Anthony Fauci’s influence extended far beyond the USA during the Covid period. Even European health authorities copied some of the measures he recommended.
Julia Benito points out that we imported not only many of Fauci’s medical ‘truths’, but also the attitude in which science was used as a technique of domination. It can be summed up as ‘we own and define science, and if you criticise us, you are unscientific and dangerous. Trust the experts and no one else!’. She wonders what happened to critical, independent journalism. ‘Then as now. For the issue concerns how Western democracies deal with mistakes, uncertainty and power. Moreover, how the media perform their role when established truths are challenged by new documentation. The question is not only what Fauci actually did and said, but also why we in Norway barely discuss it. What does that say about our ability to learn from a crisis that had enormous consequences for society?’
But although he was undoubtedly one of the principal actors, he was nevertheless only one man. It was an entire system that failed here, not merely one person. Scientific journals had become corrupted. Safe medicines that actually protected people against Covid-19 were suppressed and vilified, while dangerous vaccine products were rushed onto the market with shockingly little regard for medical ethics or basic respect for human life. Claims with little or no basis in actual evidence were repeated by heads of government, doctors, journalists and health authorities and presented to the public as ‘science’. In that sense, Anthony Fauci did not represent science, but rather its corruption.
On 5 August 2026, the US Senate voted by 51 votes to 44 to appoint Dr Erica Schwartz as the new director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). During the hearing, she said, while smiling and laughing, that she believes mRNA technology is safe and effective. She will now lead the agency responsible for public health, disease prevention, vaccine recommendations, safety monitoring, outbreak management and guidance on health policy in the USA. This entails considerable influence over vaccination schedules and technological oversight, for example with regard to modified mRNA.
At the same time, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first mRNA-based influenza vaccine for adults in the USA. The chief executive of the pharmaceutical company Moderna, Stéphane Bancel commented that ‘This approval also reflects the continued potential of our mRNA platform to help address important public health challenges through continued scientific innovation.’
Amerikanske helsemyndigheter godkjenner mRNA-basert influensavaksine fra Moderna
Author and entrepreneur Jeffrey Albert Tucker, who also founded the Brownstone Institute think tank, has lost confidence in almost all intellectuals and the institutions that claim to represent them. They have had almost nothing to say (apart from giving their support) about the entire Covid response:
‘Governments around the world learned that they could perhaps spend money without limit, incur debt and inflate away their obligations. Industry realised that there were far greater profits to be made from panic and mandates than from ordinary marketing. The ruling class realised that they could get away with endless abuse of the people, provided it was presented as public health. The vaccine industry realised that no lie was too implausible, even when they were exposed and even when their product caused widespread injuries and deaths. The media proved to be nothing more than a megaphone for hidden power. Academia proved for the most part to be useless. Any intellectual of real value would have sounded the alarm throughout this incredible debacle. Some have done so. Very few, mostly associated with new institutions that are in the process of displacing the old, failed establishment. Traditional thinkers have generally pretended that none of this happened. Remember these days: An entire generation of highly esteemed intellectuals is hereby discredited, exposed as flatterers and otherwise revealed to have chosen the comforts of social status and financial stability over the truth.’
