Sen. Rand Paul’s office over the weekend released more than 1,000 pages of journal entries written by Dr. Anthony Fauci, covering roughly three years from December 2019 through Fauci’s departure as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases 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.
The entries offer a contemporaneous account of how Fauci viewed and responded to the COVID-19 pandemic as it unfolded.
Fauci on COVID-19’s origins:
Several passages capture the early uncertainty surrounding the origins of the coronavirus. In January 2020, Fauci wrote that “we know the market was not the source, it was the amplifier,” while also noting that “somewhere the virus jumped from animals to humans.”
Roughly a week later, Fauci described a call with about a dozen infectious disease specialists, writing that there “was not total agreement about the likelihood” that mutations in the virus had been inserted by humans. According to his entry, two participants believed “this could occur naturally and we should not waste our time,” while “the rest felt that deliberate insertion was possible” and that “we could not let this go.”
Paul has claimed the diary entries show Fauci and others were privately considering coronavirus origin theories that they publicly rejected or minimized.
Fauci, however, has repeatedly maintained that he remained open to the lab leak possibility and has denied suppressing discussion of it or misleading the public.
Fauci on pandemic restrictions:
Although Fauci did not have authority to impose COVID-19 restrictions, his public guidance and private advice carried significant influence during the crisis.
In mid-March 2020, Fauci recounted a conversation with then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, saying he “convinced him … to close the NYC schools” — though Fauci noted de Blasio had already reached that decision based on Fauci’s public comments. Fauci also wrote that he “had a similar call” with an official in California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office, where plans were underway 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.”
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