The former chief adviser for the Covid-19 pandemic in the USA, Dr. Anthony Fauci refused to testify this Wednesday before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, exercising his constitutional right under the Fifth Amendment, which protects him against self-incrimination.

Just minutes after the start of the hearing, called by Republican Senator Rand Paul, Fauci announced that he would not answer questions, arguing that the process was intended to expose him to prosecution. criminal. “The only reason I’m called before this committee is to get me to say something that can be used to justify repeated promises that I’ll end up ‘behind bars,'” he declared.

This is the first time that Fauci, who has appeared before Congress more than 250 times during his career, has chosen not to testify citing the Fifth Amendment.

The hearing took place in an atmosphere of tense, as Republicans aimed to confront the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases with accusations about the way the pandemic was managed, the origin of Covid-19 and the funding of scientific research at the Wuhan laboratory.

In his opening remarks, Senator Rand Paul stated that the preemptive pardon granted by former President Joe Biden does not prevent Congress from investigating whether Fauci made false statements. “She doesn’t rewrite history, she doesn’t delete documents, and she doesn’t prevent Congress from determining what happened,” Paul said.

Even the US Secretary of Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., had stated before the hearing that, if Fauci were to lie again under oath, he could face perjury charges.

Clashes between Fauci and Rand Paul have continued for years, mainly on the issue of research. known as “gain-of-function” at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Paul claims that the National Institutes of Health has funded experiments that increased the infectivity of coronaviruses, while Fauci has repeatedly denied such a thing, emphasizing that no NIH-funded research met the official definition of such experiments.

A few days before the hearing, Rand Paul released more than 1,100 pages from Fauci’s personal diary during the pandemic. The former official described the release of the documents as an attempt to “embarrass and intimidate” him.

At the end of his statement, Fauci said that the decision not to testify was made on the advice of his lawyers, despite the respect he says he continues to have for the US Congress.

The hearing closed without Fauci’s testimony, while the political clash over the management of the pandemic and the origin of Covid-19 continues to remain a of the strongest debates in the USA.

Source: prizrenpost