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Fauci invokes right against self-incrimination at Senate Covid origins hearing
The subpoenaed appearance reopened the dispute over whether Covid-19 began via natural transmission or a Wuhan lab-related incident.
Anthony Fauci invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination during a contentious US Senate hearing on the origins of Covid-19, repeatedly refusing to answer questions raised by committee members. The hearing focused on claims tied to American funding for coronavirus research conducted in China, as well as allegations that Fauci misled Congress about how the pandemic began. Fauci, a former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a prominent figure during the US Covid-19 response, was subpoenaed to appear before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
The dispute the committee revisited centers on whether the pandemic started through natural animal-to-human transmission or through a laboratory-related incident in Wuhan, and whether US officials adequately scrutinized research there that received American funding. Committee chair Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, used the session to press Fauci on why he chose to fund what he described as dangerous research in China and to pursue the lab-leak theory linked to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, according to SCMP Economy.