Dr. Anthony Fauci would not commit to asking President Joe Biden to declassify the investigation of COVID-19’s origin when questioned by Republican Sen. Mike Braun, despite asserting support of transparency.
In a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing Wednesday, Fauci faced questions on the recent news that Biden shut down and covered up an investigation into whether the novel coronavirus was leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, rather than the previously reported natural origin, possibly in a Chinese wet market.
After Fauci expressed support for “transparency” from the government, Braun suggested the research and information be declassified. Although he agreed that there was a clear need for further investigation which ought to be openly shared with the American people, Fauci demurred about whether he would advise Biden to declassify the information surrounding the aborted investigation, saying “I don’t think I can promise you that.”
Braun noted that, if the request does not come from a senior adviser like Fauci, who has been involved in the White House’s COVID team from the start, the public will never know the currently classified information.
“We owe it to the American people, with what we’ve been through, to at least took at the information we have,” Braun said.
Despite serving as the president’s medical adviser, Fauci claimed to be unsure whether or not it was his “place” to advise the president on such matters. Fellow panelist and Director of the NIH Dr. Francis Collins, supported Fauci’s position, vaguely supporting openness without any specificity for how to get the information to the American people.
Collins suggested accountability should come from the World Health Organization, which is funded by China and influenced by the CCP, calling for them to further look into COVID-19’s origins rather than the United States. Braun noted that the American people may have less faith in a new investigation by the WHO, and closed his questioning with one more plea to release the information to the public.
Source: The Federalist
