Fauci to Return to Capitol Hill

Dr. Anthony Fauci is scheduled on Monday to provide his first congressional testimony since leaving government, with Republicans and Democrats planning different lines of questioning. GOP members of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic expect to ask about allegations of misconduct on his watch at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Hill reports. A Democratic member said she wants to hear about lessons from the coronavirus pandemic. "I don't think it's worthwhile to attack a public health official who did everything that he could at the time with the goal of public health in mind," said Rep. Deborah Ross.

The Republican chair, Rep. Brad Wenstrup, has that question, too, but also others. "I'd like to hear what he thinks we should do going forward since he was involved with what I believe to be mistakes or a misguided process," Wenstrup said. He also plans to ask about emails. The panel has testimony about allegations that another NIAID official tried to evade public records laws concerning grants and that Fauci was aware of the effort, which emails seem to indicate. GOP members may also question Fauci about whether he profited from the pandemic, per NPR, and the origins of the virus.

Scientists fell on both sides of whether the hearings are a good idea, per NPR. Alina Chan, a molecular biologist at MIT and Harvard, wants the coronavirus origins to be delved into, and Jamie Metzl, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, says the grants matter should be examined. Michael Worobey of the University of Arizona and Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of tropical medicine at Baylor College, see the hearings shaping up as harassment of scientists. "Parading prominent virologists in front of C-SPAN cameras to humiliate them is going to have long-term detrimental effects on science, biopreparedness and virology," Hotez said. (More Anthony Fauci stories.)