Following Dr. Anthony Fauci announcing his resignation, Republicans have vowed Congressional investigations into his conduct if they win majority in the House and Senate in November, with many being critical of his leadership decisions and lack of transparency through the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“He better have plenty of time on his hands come January, because we’re going to be wanting to talk to him,” said Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) during an Aug. 22 interview with Steve Lance on NTD, a sister media outlet of Epoch Times.
Fauci’s tenure, Carter said, had been marred by inconsistency and flip-flopping on vital issues, such as the origins of the virus.
“We need to make sure that we’re not doing this again and, if indeed this did come from a leak in the Wuhan lab, then China needs to be held responsible,” Carter said. “There’s no question about that.
Key Issues Unanswered
Fauci’s handling of the pandemic has undergone a number of contentious episodes.At the same time as that meeting, Fauci was exchanging messages with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on how pandemic-related information on social media should be handled.
“I think Dr. Fauci like all of us, sees the writing on the wall,” Rick Mehta, a professor of health law at Georgetown University, told Steve Lance.
“He’s going to have to answer some very tough questions. Some questions that have gone unanswered since the start of COVID: ‘gain of function’ research, funding to the Chinese Communist Party at the Wuhan lab, how the virus came about, the failed response to COVID lockdowns, [and] American lives lost to a crushed economy.”
Mehta, much like Carter, sees a silver lining in Fauci’s resignation, namely, the opportunity to restore trust in America’s crumbling institutions.
“Starting to rebuild the integrity of our public health system starts with Dr. Fauci retiring,” Mehta said. “And I think many of us in the public health and medical community are happy that there’s going to be a turning over a new leaf.”
“The first step is that anyone who comes into his place and takes control in terms of leadership with any public health agency has to respect the laws of our land, they have to respect constitutional rights, and they cannot use public health as a pretext to pause individual rights and constitutional liberties afforded to all Americans.”