Dr. Anthony Fauci and Sen. Rand Paul have icily contested the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic for more than five years, a debate that is still going on in Congress.
But the Kentucky senator’s battle with Fauci took a surprisingly personal turn this week when Rand released excerpts from the journals of the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who was the face of the federal government’s response to the pandemic until he retired in 2022.
The entries provide a look into what was going on in Fauci’s life — and in his mind — at the beginning of the pandemic, and provide plenty of fodder for those who see the longtime federal health official as more of a villain than a hero of the pandemic.
On social media, people have highlighted sections in which Fauci talked about publications that were writing about him in flattering terms, while tersely noting the numbers of deaths that had occurred at that time. Others pointed out sections where they think they have found a “smoking gun,” a discrepancy between what Fauci said publicly and what he was saying in private about the pandemic.
But it’s Fauci’s frequent references to his newfound celebrity that are most often the subject of derision online.
“It is not hyperbole to say that today I am the most famous and talked about person in the country and one of the most recognizable persons in the world,” Fauci wrote at one point.
Another time, he mentioned cars honking and people waving to him as they passed him on the street.
And Fauci says at one point that President Donald Trump is not happy with his chief medical adviser taking up all the oxygen in the press room, writing, “Apparently the WH is very upset that I am being profiled and it looks like I am putting down the POTUS and becoming a star that outshines him. The press is playing into this as is the tweet storm. Very stressful!!”
He also writes that he’s not happy being the focus of pandemic merchandise that was starting to circulate, writing, “The ‘swag’ around me is getting really ridiculous. You can buy Fauci T-shirts, mugs, donuts, sweat shirts, candles, pillows, etc. Geeeez!! I do not like this one bit.”
Rand released the journal entries Saturday in the “reading room” section of his Senate website. He presumably obtained them as part of an investigation he is conducting as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Fauci is set to testify before the committee Wednesday morning, an event that Paul has been playing up on his X account.
As of this writing, Fauci has neither confirmed nor denied the authenticity of the journal excerpts, nor other material released last week on Rand’s website, including documents concerning prize money he was awarded for his work during the pandemic, which Libertas Institute President Connor Boyack wrote about on SubStack.