Former chief White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci is set to testify before Congress in January on the origins of Covid-19 and the U.S. response to the pandemic, Republican lawmakers announced Thursday.
Fauci is scheduled to sit for transcribed interviews next month ahead of a public hearing that does not yet have a firm date.
It will be Fauci’s first appearance before the Republican-controlled House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.
Subcommittee Chair Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) said in a statement Thursday, “It is time for Dr. Fauci to confront the facts and address the numerous controversies that have arisen during and after the pandemic.”
A longtime member of the House Intelligence Committee, Wenstrup has accused Fauci of withholding key facts about the coronavirus.
Back in March, House lawmakers unanimously voted to declassify U.S. intelligence about Covid-19’s origins, citing “potential links” between the research that was done at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China and the virus’ global outbreak.
In 2022, Republicans on House Intel had issued a staff report asserting that there are “indications” that Covid-19 may have been developed at the Chinese institute in Wuhan to be a bioweapon.
However, a U.S. intelligence community assessment contradicted that assertion before the fact in 2021 via the release of an unclassified document that said analysts do not believe Covid-19 was a bioweapon, though it may have leaked in a lab accident.
Fauci was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases before becoming the Biden Administration’s top doctor until he retired last December
The House Coronavirus Subcommittee first requested an interview with him in February. However, it has taken until the past few weeks for the lawmakers and Fauci’s attorneys to reach an agreement on timing and the parameters for the questioning.
PHOTO: Dr. Anthony Fauci in March 2023
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