Fauci testifying to Senate panel after Rand Paul releases trove of diary entries

By Caitlin Yilek Politics Reporter Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at CBSNews.com, based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation. Read Full Bio July 29, 2026 / 6:03 AM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google What to know about Dr. Anthony Fauci's Senate testimony:Dr. Anthony Fauci, formerly the federal government's top infectious disease expert, is testifying Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, setting up a showdown with the panel's chair, Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.Fauci is appearing under subpoena just days after Paul's office released a trove of diary entries Fauci wrote during his time as a leader in the Trump and Biden administrations' response to the COVID-19 pandemic.In the journal entries, Fauci recounts early discussions about the origins of the coronavirus, an issue that lawmakers have investigated and that Paul has accused Fauci of downplaying. Updated 30m ago The debate over coronavirus origins and "gain-of-function" research The precise origins of the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic have not been definitively nailed down — drawing years of debate among politicians, medical experts and intelligence officials.Many scientists believe the evidence suggests that the virus emerged naturally in bats, circulated to other species and spilled over to humans at a live animal market in Wuhan, China, where the first human cases appeared in late 2019. Others believe the virus accidentally leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan that was carrying out virology research.Last year, a panel of experts assembled by the World Health Organization was unable to reach a firm conclusion on how the coronavirus emerged. They wrote that the "weight of available evidence" suggested it jumped naturally from animals to humans, but they couldn't rule out a lab leak, in part because China didn't make records available.The U.S. intelligence community offered a similarly mixed view in 2023. The National Intelligence Council and four other agencies found the virus likely infected humans through natural exposure to an animal, while the FBI and Department of Energy believed it was likely a lab incident. The CIA was unable to reach a conclusion at the time, though it issued a new assessment favoring the lab leak last year. Some of the debate revolves around "gain-of-function" research, a controversial practice broadly defined as modifying or enhancing viruses to study how they evolve. Paul and other critics have accused the U.S. National Institutes of Health of funding such research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and have argued that it may have led to the coronavirus' creation.During the Biden era, the NIH denied that the bat virus research conducted in Wuhan constituted risky gain-of-function research, and the specific viruses that were studied were "genetically far distant" from the one that caused the pandemic. Updated 30m ago Fauci and Paul have sparred for years Wednesday's hearing could be the latest in a series of explosive confrontations between Fauci and Paul, two medical doctors by training who have publicly accused each other of lying.Paul has backed the theory that the coronavirus emerged from a lab, and has accused Fauci and other top officials of publicly downplaying and denigrating that theory, especially in the early days of the pandemic. Fauci insists he has always kept an open mind about the virus' origins, though he has argued at various points that the evidence suggests the virus emerged naturally.Also at issue: "gain-of-function" research. Paul has accused Fauci of lying to Congress by denying that the NIH funded that type of research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, and has encouraged the Justice Department to prosecute Fauci on those grounds. (Biden preemptively pardoned Fauci shortly before leaving office last year.)Fauci has strenuously denied those allegations, arguing the studies Paul cited did not constitute gain-of-function research under federal definitions, which Paul rejected."If anybody is lying here, senator, it is you," Fauci said in one contentious 2021 hearing.Fauci privately wrote about Paul in diary entries released by Paul's office over the weekend. On April 20, 2021, Fauci wrote that Paul was among those spreading conspiracy theories "to try and connect me with the virus from WUHAN." Updated 30m ago Fauci's diary entries describe COVID-19 pandemic's early days Paul's office released more than 1,000 pages of journal entries by Fauci over the weekend. They span about three years, from December 2019 to the end of his time as National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director in December 2022.Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Fox News the entries were retrieved from government computer servers in recent months.Fauci's writings document his response to the pandemic in real time.Fauci on COVID-19's origins: Some of Fauci's diary entries reflect early uncertainty about the source of the coronavirus that caused the pandemic. In January 2020, he wrote that "we know the market was not the source, it was the amplifier," though he added that "somewhere the virus jumped from animals to humans."About a week later, he detailed a call with a dozen infectious disease experts, saying there "was not total agreement about the likelihood" that mutations to the virus were inserted by humans. He said two people on the call believed "this could occur naturally and we should not waste our time," but "the rest felt that deliberate insertion was possible" and "we could not let this go."Paul has argued the diary entries demonstrate Fauci and his colleagues were privately entertaining theories about the origin of the coronavirus that they publicly dismissed. Fauci has long insisted he kept an open mind on the lab leak theory and denied downplaying it or misleading the public.Fauci on pandemic restrictions:Fauci didn't have the power to set COVD-19 restrictions, but his words carried weight.In mid-March 2020, Fauci describes a conversation with then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio in which he "convinced him … to close the NYC schools" — a decision Fauci said de Blasio had already made based on Fauci's public statements. He said he "had a similar call" with an official in the office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who planned to close schools and restaurants.By August of that year, Fauci wrote that reopening schools should be the "default position," but "one size does not fit all and decisions should be based on the level of infection in the community." At the same time, he chafed at officials who wanted all schools to reopen at once.In May 2021, Fauci was critical of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for its strict, "ultra-conservative" advice on outdoor mask-wearing, fearing that "our credibility is going to be attacked" if the CDC doesn't "loosen up."Read more here. Updated 30m ago Fauci diary describes Trump, Biden and his own media frenzy The diary tracks Fauci's evolving relationship with Mr. Trump, his time in the Biden administration and his reaction to his newfound celebrity status. Fauci on TrumpFauci on Trump In the pandemic's early days, Fauci described some positive interactions with the president, though at other points, he vented about Mr. Trump's "rambling" press conferences and described arguments between the two of them. In the latter half of 2020, as the two men's relationship publicly frayed, Fauci expressed frustration with Mr. Trump's attacks on him and statements about the pandemic. He said the president was acting "erratically," and was a "true embarrassment" and an "idiot." In July 2021, after Mr. Trump left office, Fauci wrote: "Only now in retrospect do I fully appreciate what a disaster Trump was as President." Fauci on Biden Fauci's descriptions of former President Joe Biden — who named Fauci chief medical adviser — are far more positive. While describing an Oval Office meeting in July 2021, Fauci wrote that "seriousness, dignity, and integrity … now permeates the entire White House." Fauci on FauciFauci extensively documented his own media appearances, and seems simultaneously bemused and fascinated by his sudden rise to fame. He noted author Sally Quinn telling him she based a handsome character off of him, Brad Pitt playing him on "Saturday Night Live," a Billy Crystal spoof and an email from Barbara Streisand. He also included pictures of Fauci masks, murals, portraits and bobbleheads. But some diary entries expressed discomfort with the "cult hero"-style attention he was getting. "It is not hyoperbole [sic] to say that today I am the most famous and talked about person in the country and one of the most recognizable peson [sic] in the world," Fauci wrote on May 21, 2020. "POTUS seems to be enamored of me even though I am taking the spotlight away from him. We are developing a very unique and interesting relationship." In: Health Rand Paul Wuhan COVID-19 Anthony Fauci