Rand Paul’s Fauci Diary Distortion

Since he released Dr. Anthony Fauci’s diary two weeks ago, Sen. Rand Paul has been arguing that the entries show that the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director was not transparent with the public.

In particular, Paul has repeatedly pointed to a single entry that he claims shows Fauci’s dishonesty over the origin of the coronavirus.

“One of the biggest items that we found in there was that in January of 2020, he already was acknowledging that the virus didn’t originate in the marketplace,” Paul said of the diary entries in a press gaggle on July 27. “For years he’s been telling you … the reason we think it came from nature is because they had these exotic animals and that’s where SARS came from previously. But he knew, he already knew.”

Paul also featured snippets of the diary entry in a video he played during a July 29 Senate hearing in which Fauci had been subpoenaed to appear.

But the Kentucky senator, who has baselessly accused Fauci of possibly being culpable for the COVID-19 pandemic, has selectively quoted from the diary entry and distorted its meaning.

While Fauci did write on Jan. 26, 2020, that data suggests that “the first infection was in early December and was not connected to the market,” and “Now we know the market was not the source, it was the amplifier,” this does not mean that Fauci thought the virus didn’t have a natural origin.

In fact, his very next sentence was: “Having said that, somewhere the virus jumped from animals to humans.”

As Science Editor Jessica McDonald explains, Fauci was likely referring to a Lancet article that had been published two days earlier that had found some of the first lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in China, including the first, did not have a known connection to the suspected wet market. Science had reported on it that day in a story headlined, “Wuhan seafood market may not be source of novel virus spreading globally.”

Scientists would go on to investigate the origins of the virus, finding that the first recognized COVID-19 case did have a connection to the wet market, and accumulating other evidence that implicates the wildlife trade and spillovers from animals to humans at the market. While this evidence can’t prove a natural origin at the market, hypotheses about any kind of potential lab leak remain speculative.

On the advice of his lawyers, Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during the July 29 hearing and declined to respond to any questions. Before leaving office, former President Joe Biden pardoned Fauci for any potential crimes related to his service in government, but the pardon does not cover any statements he might have made during the hearing. 

Yesterday, a Senate committee voted along party lines to hold Fauci in contempt. Paul said that rather than moving the referral to the Senate for a full vote, he would deliver it directly to the Department of Justice. If convicted, Fauci could face up to a year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000.

Fauci had previously answered questions about the COVID-19 pandemic in more than 20 congressional hearings, including in three focused on the origin of the virus.

For more, see our full story, “Paul Distorts Fauci’s Diary Entry About COVID-19 and Wet Market.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made several false, misleading and baseless claims in a contentious Aug. 2 interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Our team of writers explained seven of Kennedy's assertions and disagreements with host Dana Bash.

For instance, Kennedy baselessly claimed that Lyme disease and respiratory syncytial virus infections came from lab research. There’s no evidence for this, and the diseases have long affected humans. “RFK Jr’s assertions that RSV and Lyme disease (caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi) arose from gain of function research are unquestionably false,” Dr. Ferric Fang, a physician-scientist and microbiologist at the University of Washington School of Medicine, told us.

Kennedy asserted that effective treatments were suppressed during the COVID-19 pandemic, likely referring to ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, as he has before. Multiple clinical trials have shown that neither drug improved outcomes in COVID-19 patients.

He misleadingly said that scientists have not tested vaccines other than the MMR (or measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine for autism. Scientists have tested many vaccines while investigating specific hypotheses for how the shots might cause autism. None of the studies has shown any credible link. 

Read more: "RFK Jr.’s Falsehood-Filled CNN Interview."

Wrapping Up

Here's what else we've got for you this week:

• Oz’s Medicaid Fraud Claims About California and Minnesota Lack Context
  Announcing a pause on more than $1 billion in Medicaid funding to Minnesota and California last month, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz accused state officials of being too lax about fraud, citing among other things the results of a provider verification process in Minnesota and the rapid growth of a California home care program. But he left out important context in both cases.
   
• Trump Overstates Magnitude of Noncitizen Voting in New Jersey 
  New Jersey’s governor announced that “a software error” in the state’s motor vehicle registration system resulted in 6,600 noncitizens being improperly added to the state’s voter registration list. The state’s preliminary investigation found that up to 400 votes were cast by noncitizens, far fewer than the “thousands of votes” claimed by President Donald Trump.

• Trump exagera la magnitud del voto de no ciudadanos en Nueva Jersey
  El gobernador de Nueva Jersey anunció que “un error del software” en el sistema de registro de vehículos del estado provocó que 6.600 personas no ciudadanas fueran añadidas indebidamente al padrón electoral estatal. La investigación preliminar del estado reveló que 400 votos fueron emitidos por personas no ciudadanas, una cifra muy inferior a los “miles de votos” que afirmó el presidente Donald Trump.
   
• Los demócratas exageran el papel que tuvo el cambio en un programa de monitoreo en el brote parasitario
  Mientras un brote masivo de ciclosporiasis ha asolado el Medio Oeste, los demócratas han culpado con frecuencia a la administración Trump por la cancelación de un programa de monitoreo del parásito. Sin embargo, varios expertos en seguridad nos comentaron que es poco probable que el cambio en el programa, llamado FoodNet, haya tenido una influencia directa en el brote actual.