Fauci's Private Diary, Released by a Political Rival, Reopens the Covid Origins Fight
Sen. Rand Paul made public more than a thousand pages of journal entries ahead of a contentious hearing
By Nathaniel "Beltway" Steele
Anthony Fauci kept a diary. Now a senator who has spent years trying to discredit him has put more than a thousand pages of it into public view.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a longtime and vocal critic of Fauci's handling of the pandemic, released the journal entries this week, according to CBS News and The New York Times. The timing was not incidental: the disclosure lands just ahead of a hearing expected to be, in CBS News' description, "contentious."
The entries themselves are a mix. Some touch on the question that has never been definitively settled — whether the coronavirus emerged from a Wuhan lab or from natural transmission — and reflect what CBS News described as some of Fauci's own uncertainty about the virus's origins. Others are more personal: reflections on his sudden fame during the pandemic, including invitations to A-list social events, material the Times reported has reignited debate less about science than about Fauci's public persona.
What the diary does not appear to contain, based on the reporting reviewed, is a smoking gun. No outlet reported an admission of concealment or wrongdoing. The entries are private reflections, not sworn testimony, and their release by a political opponent — rather than through a records request or Fauci's own choice — is itself part of the story. Readers should weigh the source of the disclosure alongside its contents.
The hearing where lawmakers are expected to press Fauci on the entries was scheduled for Wednesday. What, if anything, changes as a result remains to be seen.
Read the footnotes. The story's always in the footnotes.
— Compiled from reporting by CBS News and The New York Times.
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