The Day Science Took the Fifth

By the time the July 29 Fauci hearing ended, millions of Americans understood why Sen. Paul had such single-minded focus to expose 'America's doctor.'

When the grueling Senate Hearing of the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs was finally over, Anthony Fauci was reduced to an ashen shell of a man. His only significant comment was in his opening statement where he expressed his belief that Senator Rand Paul had an “obsession” with placing him behind bars.

By the time the hearing was over, millions of Americans understood why Senator Paul had such a single-minded focus in delivering Fauci to this moment. Many now would not shed a tear if Fauci did hear the clang of prison doors slamming shut behind him.

Anthony Fauci, the former Director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the man who directed the federal government response to the Covid pandemic, was dragged over the coals by Senators Rand Paul (R-KY), Ron Johnson (R-WI), James Lankford (R-OK), Rick Scott (R-FL), Josh Hawley (R-MI), Bernie Moreno (R-Oh), Joni Ernst (R-IA), and Ashley Moody (R-FL).

Fauci left the Dirksen Senate Hearing room in silence with his retinue of attorneys – minus David Shertler, who was removed by Committee Chair Paul for disrupting the hearing.

The people in attendance applauded Shertler’s removal.

Fauci rose to unprecedented popularity during the Covid pandemic, becoming ‘America’s Doctor.’ He once claimed to be the very embodiment of science. Starting in 2020, a fawning legacy media lavished Fauci with praise. While the Covid pandemic raged, Fauci’s star rose. His diary, which he kept on a government computer (and was therefore government property), was released to the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (author of the bestseller, The Real Anthony Fauci), along with thousands of other documents.

Fauci’s diary showed that he bathed in the glory of media attention while thousands of Americans were dying alone in isolated hospital rooms.

But the Covid virus, which fueled Fauci’s apotheosis, also carried the seeds of his demise. Revelations about the real origins of the virus dripped out. The public came to understand that the very virus which led to Fauci’s fame was triggered by the reckless gain-of-function research which he endorsed and secretly funded.

Fauci denied funding gain-of-function research under oath in previous Senate hearings.

And that was only one of Fauci’s lies.

That damned virus, which Fauci claimed jumped to humans from “nature,” was almost certainly ‘leaked’ from a Chinese biolab that Fauci funded through Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance.

Fauci funded the monstrous research that created the virus. In the end, Fauci and his government-funded scientists could not contain the microscopic monster they created.

Of course Fauci denied it all. He led a public relations campaign to attack and smear anyone who claimed that the virus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

“They’re conspiracy theorists.”

“They’re anti-science.”

The legacy media backed him to the hilt and actually became government partners in the suppression of speech about the origins of the pandemic. Legacy media outlets and social media platforms became agents of censorship.

Fauci gave multi-million-dollar grants to researchers to write the proximal origins paper to create the natural origin hypothesis narrative, even though many of the researchers privately expressed fears that the virus was man-made. Fauci used his influence with the media and the intelligence community to promulgate the most disastrous lie of the century.

Fauci’s response to his senatorial pinata treatment was to invoke the Fifth Amendment – 111 times.

After a few exchanges, Fauci’s rigid delivery of the same one-liner made for deadly theater – Samuel Beckett without irony.

Senator Rand Paul: “This is when the debate about (gain-of-function) began, you wrote in support of this in the Washington Post and you said, even if a scientist is bitten, even a pandemic should occur, the knowledge is worth the risks. Do you still stand by that?”

Fauci: “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”

Senator Rand Paul: “There will be repercussions to your refusal to testify today.”

Senator Ron Johnson asked Fauci if he was aware that then CBER Director Peter Marks suppressed an algorithm that revealed massive Covid vaccine safety signals, “including sudden cardiac death, cerebral artery occlusion, basal ganglia stroke, agonal rhythm, Bell’s palsy, and pulmonary infarction.”

He continued, “Your diaries now show that you actually suffered pulmonary infarction…I was wondering whether it ever went through your mind that maybe that injection, all those boosters you took might have caused that.”

Senator Johnson then asked, “Were you ever made aware of the fact that Peter Marks was warned that the algorithm (he chose to use) was going to hide the safety signals and were you told that senior FDA officials were showing dozens of safety signals associated with the COVID injection?”

Fauci: “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”

Senator Bernie Moreno confronted Fauci regarding the draconian Covid policies he championed. Moreno recalled an event in which a family was arrested for sitting in the stands at a high school football game. Moreno asked, “Who the #%@& do you think you are? It is a total disgrace what you did to this country.”

Fauci did not respond.

Senator Josh Hawley accused Fauci of illegally using his staff – taxpayer funded civil servants – to solicit prize money for himself. One award provided Fauci with over $900,000. “You were getting rich while hundreds of thousands of Americans were dying,” Hawley said. “You turned your staff into a full-time application machine.”

Hawley then attacked the premise of Fauci’s use of the Fifth Amendment, “Let’s just get one thing straight. You don’t have any rights under the Fifth Amendment, because you’ve been pardoned. As you very well know, the Supreme Court has been clear for a century and more, Brown versus Walker, 1896 – ‘when he has been pardoned, he may not stand upon his privilege.’ You know that. Your lawyers sitting behind you now shifting nervously in their chairs, they know it…This is about contempt. Contempt for this body and contempt for the American people.”

Fauci again sat in silence.

Senator Joni Ernst confronted Fauci on his decision to approve the use of “aborted baby body parts” in mice research conducted by virologist Ralph Baric. “They wrote that they had created ‘a sandwich’ of aborted body parts in the mice.” Ernst then asked, “Dr. Fauci, do you think that human aborted parts should be put into mice to do Corona Virus research?”

Once again, Fauci took the Fifth.

Senator Moody pressed Fauci on the pre-emptive pardon he received from President Biden. “Did you talk to President Biden and ask for this pardon?

Dr. Fauci: “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”

Senator Moody: “Who did you talk to in the White House about this pardon?”

Dr. Fauci: “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”

Senator Moody: “Did you specifically ask that it be dated back to the beginning of 2014?”

Dr. Fauci: “On the advice of Council, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”

Senator Moody: “Did you do that so that you would be given immunity going back to the beginning of 2014?”

Dr. Fauci: “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”

Senator Moody: “I’m just very interested in why it was this date. Did it have anything to do with the fact that 2014 was also the year that the NIAID, or NIH began funding EcoHealth Alliance, understanding the risk of bat coronavirus emergence grants?”

Once again, the embodiment of science took the Fifth.

Democratic Senators were present but did not ask Fauci questions. Rather, they defended him, many saying it was time to move forward and not dredge up issues from the Covid era.

Mary Holland, the CEO of Children’s Health Defense, was in the hearing room and felt disappointed in the Democrats. “Everyone in the room wanted justice. What was so shameful is that the Democrats defended Fauci.” Holland added, “Millions of people died and they don’t want to talk about it.”

And Fauci, sticking to his stale legal script, did not want to talk about it either.

In the end, Fauci leaves the public stage as a deflated, sad, silent villain. He could be incarcerated for a while for Contempt of Congress. However, Fauci is eighty-five years old and could never serve all the time he deserves.

Let God judge him.

As for the rest of us mortals – we are left with a greater challenge: the need to make sure that we prevent anonymous, embedded bureaucrats from ever again seizing the kind of power that Fauci amassed. To do that, we must insist on transparency and accountability. We must make sure that making America healthy again includes making our republic healthy again.

No white-coated expert should ever again be allowed to tell people to isolate, shun their dying relatives, not practice their religion, and submit to a poisonous potion.

The type of monster that Fauci became and the type of monster he unleashed is still glaring at us from the darkness.

In silence.