_WHAT’S HAPPENING_
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) released over 1,000 pages of Dr. Anthony Fauci's private diary entries, revealing damning contradictions between what the former NIAID director wrote privately and what he said publicly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fauci, who consistently fixated on his own celebrity status during the peak of the pandemic, is scheduled to testify before Paul's Senate Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday.
_THE FACTS_
Fauci privately ruled out the Wuhan wet market as COVID's origin in January 2020, yet publicly claimed for years the market was the likely source.
He estimated COVID's fatality rate at 0.2-0.3 percent in February 2020, but told Congress it was "10 times more lethal than seasonal flu."
Fauci admitted in his diary to convincing NYC Mayor de Blasio (D) to close schools and lock down the city.
He repeatedly denied involvement in lockdowns, claiming "I had nothing to do" with school closures.
On May 21, 2020, Fauci wrote he was "the most famous and talked about person in the country."
Two weeks later, he wrote: "Press still hot and heavy about me. Multiple stories per day directly or indirectly involving me."
Fauci lobbied NIH colleagues to nominate him for a $1 million Dan David Prize, which he won in 2021.
He testified under oath in 2024 that he didn't know about adviser David Morens hiding and deleting federal records, contradicting his own diary entries.
He wrote that he believed COVID's origin involved possible "deliberate insertion" from gain-of-function research at Wuhan Institute.
_OUR TAKE_
The diary entries are a mask-off moment for one of the greatest deceptions in American history. Fauci ruled out the “wet market” theory of COVID in January 2020, knew it had a 0.3 percent mortality rate, and took credit for school lockdowns — then spent years telling the public the opposite of all three.
How many Americans lost businesses, missed funerals, and watched their children fall behind while Fauci was writing diary entries about being "the most famous and talked about person in the country" and winning $1 million prizes? Today’s hearing will no doubt be explosive, but seeking justice may be the more important play.
