Fauci declines to testify on Covid pandemic during tense Senate hearing

Anthony Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment and declined to answer questions during a tense US Senate hearing on the origins of Covid-19, citing concerns that his testimony could be used against him.

According to Al Jazeera, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases repeatedly told lawmakers: "On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based on my rights under the Fifth Amendment."

In his opening statement, Fauci said it "pains" him to invoke the Fifth Amendment but argued the hearing was intended to support efforts to prosecute him.

"The sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to prompt me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, ‘behind bars’."

Republican Senator Rand Paul, who chaired the hearing, accused Fauci of supporting virus research in China and said: "I hope today Dr Fauci will come clean, admit it was a mistake to fund research in China, admit that the risk of this research exceeded any possible benefits."

Fauci has denied wrongdoing and has previously said the available scientific evidence more strongly supports the theory that Covid-19 spread naturally from animals to humans rather than originating from a laboratory.

A Republican-led congressional inquiry in 2024 did not find evidence linking Fauci to wrongdoing.