Fauci wasn't one of the witnesses on Tuesday, but his longtime Senate antagonist Rand Paul (R-Ky.) sharply questioned Robert F. Garry, professor at the Tulane University School of Medicine and an author of an early COVID-19 origins theory opinion piece that sparked widespread debate.
"I know of no other example in modern scientific history or publications where a publication has come forward pronouncing with such authority that the lab leak is implausible and is not a laboratory construct, while privately saying this is no friggin' conspiracy theory, it looks like it did," Paul said.
Garry's paper didn't explicitly rule out a lab leak theory, but the authors concluded that a "laboratory-based scenario" was not plausible.
Fauci cited the publication when speaking in support of a natural origins theory. Subsequent reporting revealed that Fauci, along with other federal health officials, were in communication with the authors shortly before the piece was published.
Some GOP senators accused U.S. scientists of suppressing the lab leak theory.
"It's absolutely disgraceful, Dr. Garry. You are part of this propaganda effort. I mean, you are right at the center of it. It's astounding," Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said.
Fauci and other prominent scientists have insisted there was never a coverup, and that while they don't discount the possibility of a lab leak, they've said the evidence supporting a natural origin of the virus is much stronger.
The U.S. intelligence community thinks it's plausible the virus originated in a laboratory or in the wild. A declassified report from 2023 showed every U.S. intelligence agency unanimously agreed that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was not developed as a biological weapon, but there was no consensus as to the virus's origin.
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