At a House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic hearing on Monday, Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke about his work and the coronavirus pandemic.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony that you are about to give is the truth, the
00:06whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
00:11Thank you.
00:12Let the record show that the witness answered in the affirmative.
00:15The Select Subcommittee certainly appreciates you for being here today, and we look forward
00:19to your testimony.
00:21Let me remind the witness that we have read your written statement, and it will appear
00:25in full in the hearing record.
00:28As requested, please limit your oral statement to six minutes.
00:31As a reminder, please press the button on the microphone in front of you so that it
00:35is on and the members can hear you.
00:38When you begin to speak, the light in front of you will turn green.
00:42After five minutes, the light will turn yellow, and when the red light comes on, your six
00:46minutes has expired, and we would ask that you please wrap up.
00:50I now recognize Dr. Fauci to give an opening statement.
00:54Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Ruiz, members of the Subcommittee, thank you for this opportunity
00:59to testify.
01:01Prior to my retirement from federal service in December 2022, I had been at the NIH for
01:0654 years and Director of NIAID for more than 38 years.
01:11In those posts, I was deeply involved in the scientific and public health response to several
01:16infectious diseases outbreaks, including HIV-AIDS, pandemic flu, Ebola, and Zika, and so, under
01:23my leadership, we were well positioned to respond to COVID-19.
01:28For at least two decades prior to the COVID outbreak, we at NIAID had invested billions
01:33of dollars in research on mRNA technology and immunogen design, both of which led to
01:39the swift development of COVID vaccines.
01:42Less than 11 months after the identification of this new virus, safe and highly effective
01:46vaccines were widely available, an unprecedented accomplishment in the history of vaccinology
01:53that saved tens of millions of lives worldwide.
01:57I will now use my remaining time to directly address certain issues that have been seriously
02:02distorted concerning me.
02:05The first issue concerns my actions regarding the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 might have
02:10resulted from a lab leak.
02:12On January 31, 2020, I was informed through phone calls with Jeremy Farrar, then Director
02:19of the Wellcome Trust in the UK, and then with Christian Anderson, a highly regarded
02:24scientist at Scripps Research Institute, that they and Eddie Holmes, a world-class evolutionary
02:30biologist from Australia, were concerned that the genomic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 suggested
02:37that the virus could have been manipulated in a lab.
02:41I participated in a conference call the next day with about a dozen international virologists
02:46to discuss this possibility versus a spillover from an animal reservoir.
02:52The discussion was lively, with arguments for both possibilities.
02:56Two participants have testified before this subcommittee that I did not try to steer the
03:02discussion in any direction.
03:05It was decided that several participants would more carefully examine the genomic sequence.
03:11After this further examination, several who at first were concerned about lab manipulation
03:18became convinced that the virus was not deliberately manipulated.
03:23They concluded that the most likely scenario was a spillover from an animal reservoir,
03:29although they still kept an open mind.
03:32They appropriately published their opinion in the peer-reviewed literature.
03:37The accusation being circulated that I influenced these scientists to change their minds by
03:43bribing them with millions of dollars in grant money is absolutely false and simply preposterous.
03:52I had no input into the content of the published paper.
03:56The second issue is a false accusation that I tried to cover up the possibility that the
04:02virus originated from a lab.
04:04In fact, the truth is exactly the opposite.
04:08I now quote from an email that I sent to Professor Farrar on February 1, 2020, quote,
04:16Jeremy, I just got off the phone with Christian Anderson, and he related to me his concern
04:22about the furin site mutation in the spike protein of the virus.
04:26I told him that as soon as possible, he and Eddie Holmes should get a group of evolutionary
04:32biologists together to carefully examine the data to determine if his concerns are
04:39validated and they should report it to the appropriate authorities.
04:44I would imagine that in the USA, this would be the FBI, and in the UK, it would be MI5.
04:52In the meantime, I will alert my U.S. government official colleagues of my conversation with
04:58you and Christian and determine what further investigation they recommend.
05:04Let us stay in touch.
05:05Best regards, Tony, unquote.
05:08It is inconceivable that anyone who reads this email could conclude that I was trying
05:14to cover up the possibility of a lab leak.
05:18I have always kept an open mind to the different possibilities.
05:22Another issue is that of Dr. David Morins, who has the title of senior advisor to the
05:29NIAID director and who recently began, has been investigated for conduct unbecoming a
05:36government official.
05:38Naturally, given his title, a connection is made to me.
05:43With respect to his recent testimony before this subcommittee, I knew nothing of Dr. Morins'
05:50actions regarding Dr. Daszak, ecohealth, or his emails.
05:56It is important to point out for the record that despite his title, and even though he
06:01was helpful to me in writing scientific papers, Dr. Morins was not an advisor to me on institute
06:09policy or other substantive issues.
06:13At NIAID, we had weekly executive committee meetings of the institute leadership and daily
06:19morning meetings of my immediate staff.
06:22And to the best of my recollection, he attended neither of these.
06:27Furthermore, his office is located in a different building from that of the NIAID director.
06:33Finally, in a majority staff memorandum of May 22nd, 2024, there was a statement, quote,
06:42Dr. Fauci may have conducted official business via personal email, unquote.
06:49Let me state for the record that to the best of my knowledge, I have never conducted official
06:54business using my personal email.
06:57Thank you for listening.
06:58I would be happy to address these and any other issues in the discussion period.
07:06Thank you.
07:07I now recognize myself for as much time.