Death threats and disinformation: Anthony Fauci testifies before House coronavirus subcommittee – cleveland.com

WASHINGTON, D. C. - A congressional subcommittee led by Ohios Brad Wenstrup spent hours on Monday grilling and occasionally insulting former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci over the governments response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Wenstrup, a Cincinnati Republican and physician, kicked off the hearing by accusing Fauci of overseeing one of the most invasive regimes of domestic policy the U.S. has ever seen, in an effort to stop the spread of the disease thats killed more than 1 million Americans, and of trying to sway public opinion against the lab leak theory of its origin.

Americans were aggressively bullied, shamed and silenced for merely questioning or debating issues such as social distancing, masks, vaccines, or the origins of COVID, said Wenstrup. Any dissent from your chosen scientific position was immediately labelled as anti-science. Anything less than complete submission to the mandates could cost you your livelihood, your ability to go into public, your childs ability to attend school.

It was Faucis first public testimony about the coronavirus pandemic before Wenstrups panel after privately answering its questions in January. Fauci spent much of the hearing trying to shoot down Republican claims that he ignored science and behaved irresponsibly.

He called allegations that he tried to cover up the origins of the coronavirus and used grant money to bribe scientists to change their minds about it absolutely false and simply preposterous, and denied using a personal email account for official business.

Vaccine technology research his agency funded enabled development of safe and highly effective vaccines less than 11 months after the new virus was identified, said Fauci, calling it an unprecedented accomplishment in the history of vaccinology that saved tens of millions of lives worldwide.

He said he tried to fight misinformation about the spread of the virus and techniques that could be used to fight it, such as ex-President Donald Trumps suggestion that bleach be injected into the human body.

I think one of the things that was really a problem with the response was the degree of divisiveness that we had in the country about a lack of a coherent response, where we were having people for reasons that had nothing to do with public health as science, refusing to adhere to public health intervention measures, said Fauci.

Fauci said that since the pandemic started, he and his family have experienced repeated harassment, as well as multiple credible death threats, which has required him to have protective services essentially all the time.

Every time someone gets up and says that Im responsible for the death of people throughout the world, the death threats go up, Fauci said in response to questions from Michigan Democrat Debbie Dingell. I think this is a powerful disincentive for young people to want to go into public health and maybe even science and medicine in the public arena.

When Champaign County Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, accused Fauci of trying to discredit theories that the virus started in a Chinese lab, Fauci said We dont know where it started and thats the reason why I keep an open mind. After Jordan suggested that Fauci kept former Centers for Disease Control director Robert Redfield Jr. out of a Coronavirus Task Force call because he supported the lab leak theory, Fauci denied doing so and said the call was organized by a British researcher, so they should ask him.

The hearings most contentious moment occurred when Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene told Fauci the subcommittee should be recommending you to be prosecuted. We should be writing a criminal referral because you should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. You belong in prison.

California Democrat Robert Garcia followed up by calling Fauci an American hero whose efforts have saved millions of lives in the United States and around the world. He called Taylor Greenes remarks crazy and irresponsible.

The Committees top Democrat, Californias Raul Ruiz, who is a physician, said the subcommittee should be trying to improve the nations preparedness for future pandemics instead of focusing on efforts to prove that the virus came from a Chinese lab that got U.S. research money, which requires them to prove the lab leak theory to be true.

Their accusations are without evidence, but it doesnt matter to them, said Ruiz. Intentionally misleading the public is propagating disinformation and its wrong and dangerous, not only because it manufactures distrust in our public health leaders and our public health agencies, but also because it targets Dr. Fauci and other public health officials for violent death threats.

Wenstrup said the American public deserves a lot better from their government, than they got in the response to coronavirus, and said public health issues like the pandemic should be agnostic, not political. He called for reform of the federal grant giving process.

We can fix our problems, but we have to take a good hard look at what we did and what we didnt do, be honest with ourselves and be better in our messaging to the American people, especially when it comes to health, said Wenstrup. And thats why I felt it was very important that we dont do things like mandates, but let patients have the conversation with the doctor that they know and trust and make sure that were getting the doctors all the information and data that they need.

Sabrina Eaton writes about the federal government and politics in Washington, D.C., for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.

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Death threats and disinformation: Anthony Fauci testifies before House coronavirus subcommittee - cleveland.com