Bombshell testimony from Dr. Anthony Fauci reveals he made up the six-foot social distancing rule and other measures to “protect” Americans from COVID-19. Republicans released the full transcript of their January sit-down interview with Fauci just days before Monday’s highly anticipated public testimony. They plan to grill him about the COVID restrictions he put in place, which he admitted didn’t do much to “slow the spread” of the virus. And that is exactly what happened.
Speaking to counsel on behalf of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic earlier this year, Fauci told Republicans that the six-foot social distancing rule “sort of just appeared” and that he did not recall how it came about.
“You know, I don’t recall. It sort of just appeared,” he said, according to committee transcripts when pressed on how the rule came about.
He added that he “was not aware of studies” that supported social distancing, conceding that such studies “would be very difficult” to conduct.
In addition to not recalling any evidence supporting social distancing, Fauci also told the committee’s counsel that he didn’t remember reading anything to support that masking kids would prevent COVID.
“Do you recall reviewing any studies or data supporting masking for children?” he was asked.
“I might have,” he responded before adding, “but I don’t recall specifically what I did.”
The pandemic patriarch also testified that he had not followed any studies after the fact regarding the impacts that forced mask-wearing had on children, of which there have been many.
And his answer was an ironic COVID-esque pun, “I still think that’s up in the air,” Fauci said about whether masking kids was a solid way to prevent transmission.
Further, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) told the council that he believes the lab leak theory – the idea that COVID began at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) – is a real “possibility.”
“I think people have made conspiracy aspects from it,” he said, adding, “It could be a lab leak.”
“So I think that in and of itself isn’t inherently a conspiracy theory, but some people spin off things from that that are kind of crazy.”
His admission that COVID may have begun at the WIV comes four years after he backed the publication of a paper that threw cold water on the lab leak theory called the “Proximal Origin” paper.
The coronavirus committee has dedicated months to discovering the origins of the virus that upended so many lives and resulted in the deaths of 6 million people globally.
They recently discovered that Fauci’s former top aide, Dr. David Morens, routinely worked on his personal email account and deleted files to avoid government transparency laws under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
His disregard for FOIA requests was so blatant that he bragged in emails to colleagues that he learned how to make official correspondence”‘disappear” and would delete things he didn’t “want to see in the New York Times.”
Emails from Morens uncovered by the committee further revealed that he boasted about having a “secret back channel” to Fauci where he could clandestinely communicate with the former NIAID director.
That revelation shocked the committee’s chairman, Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, so thoroughly that he demanded Fauci turn over his personal email and phone records to the investigative body.
Also shocking is Fauci’s admission to the committee in January that he ‘never’ looks at the grants that he signed off on, some of which total millions of taxpayer dollars.
“You know, technically, I sign off on each council, but I don’t see the grants and what they are. I never look at what grants are there,” he told the committee’s counsel.
Further, he said he was “not certain” that foreign labs that receive U.S. grant money, such as the WIV—which was studying coronaviruses using U.S. taxpayer dollars when the pandemic began—operate at the same standards as American labs.
Fauci also said that the money he gave out as a part of the NIAID grant process did not go through any national security reviews.
Additionally, the former director said he was unaware of any conflicts of interest among his staff, which included his senior advisor, Dr. Morens.
However, Morens testified before the committee on May 22 that he helped his ‘best friend’ EcoHealth Alliance President Dr. Peter Daszak with his nonprofit’s work.
Morens said he helped edit press releases for EcoHealth and worked to restore grant funding for the nonprofit after its funding was terminated in the wake of the COVID outbreak in 2020.
NIH, which employs Morens, funded Daszak’s EcoHealth to the tune of millions of dollars.
Still, Fauci said he was unaware that Morens had any conflicts of interest.
The committee will surely seek to clarify Fauci and Moren’s “secret back channel” of communication during the June 3 hearing.
