Acting CDC Director Says Fauci Abused Power During Pandemic
Wertynews.com – Acting CDC director says Fauci overstepped his authority during the coronavirus crisis, according to new claims by Dr. Jay Bhattacharya. The Trump-era health official told CBS News correspondent Matt Gutman that Fauci “frankly abused the place of power that he had been given both by the media and by powerful politicians” while leading the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Now serving as both head of the National Institutes of Health and acting director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Bhattacharya detailed what he views as Fauci’s primary misconduct. Acting CDC director says Fauci’s main offense involved stifling scientific debate and criticizing colleagues who disagreed with him, “including myself and many, many others, simply for the sin of disagreeing with him.”
Questioning Fauci’s Expanded Leadership Role
Bhattacharya, who taught at Stanford University School of Medicine during the pandemic, became a prominent voice against federal lockdown measures and mask mandates. In his latest interview, he raised concerns about Fauci’s self-appointed position beyond his official duties. “You know, he was the head of a research institute, he wasn’t the head of public health, yet he acted as if he were the head of public health in this country,” Bhattacharya explained.
When reminded that the initial Trump administration had informally elevated Fauci into a broader public health capacity, Bhattacharya emphasized that Fauci needed to “convey clearly what is known and what is not known, that you don’t step beyond the role that you actually have based on the expertise that you have.”
Fauci’s Senate Testimony and Diary Publication
These statements came after Fauci appeared before the Senate Homeland Security Committee under subpoena. After delivering his opening remarks, Fauci declined to respond to every question by invoking his Fifth Amendment right. He stated that Republican Senator Rand Paul was attempting “to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, quote, ‘behind bars,’ unquote.”
Senator Paul, a longstanding Fauci critic, released more than 1,000 pages of personal diary entries over the weekend. The documents chronicle Fauci’s thoughts during his nearly forty-year tenure as NIAID director before he stepped down in 2022.
Acting CDC director says Fauci’s private writings reveal important insights. Bhattacharya praised the diary release, noting the entries had been “kept on government servers.” “They reflect somebody who had a tremendous impact on the lives of every single person in the country, and in fact in the world,” he said. “I think it’s in the public interest for those notes to be released.”
Private Thoughts vs. Public Statements
Bhattacharya highlighted significant differences between Fauci’s private reflections and public pronouncements. “The way he was thinking in private regarding all of the advice he was giving to tremendously powerful people, and what he showed in public, were very different,” Bhattacharya noted. He pointed to Fauci’s early 2020 school closure recommendation as an example. “He was making decisions about closing schools, in my view, against what the actual evidence was saying at the time,” he added. “… He conveyed a certainty that it turns out in his diary he didn’t even feel himself.”
While Fauci could not directly mandate school closures or impose restrictions, his guidance carried substantial weight with government officials nationwide. In a June 2024 appearance on “CBS Mornings,” Fauci maintained that initial school shutdowns were “the right thing,” though he acknowledged that keeping them closed “for a year was not a good idea.” “If you go back and look at the YouTube, I kept on saying, ‘Close the bars, open the schools. Open the schools as quickly and as safely as you possibly can,'” he recalled.
Position on COVID Origins
Regarding the ongoing debate about the virus’s source, Bhattacharya expressed confidence that the coronavirus most likely originated from a Wuhan laboratory. This theory remains contested among experts, with many scientists supporting natural animal-to-human transmission instead.
“We don’t know for certain, but it seems really quite likely, given the evidence that I’ve seen, that it originated in a Chinese lab,” Bhattacharya stated.
When asked whether he believed Fauci misled Americans about COVID and its beginnings, Bhattacharya’s stance became evident through his comments about Fauci’s private diary entries contradicting public statements.
