New Coronavirus News from 16 Mar 2022

Scalise calls for Fauci to testify at upcoming hearing | TheHill [The Hill, 16 Mar 2022]

BY NATHANIEL WEIXEL

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) invited top infectious diseases doctor Anthony Fauci to testify alongside other administration officials at an upcoming hearing about moving beyond the current COVID-19 crisis.

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis is holding a hearing on March 30 featuring other top administration health officials, including Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy.

Fauci was not included among the witnesses.

Scalise, the panel's ranking member, said the committee has not heard from Fauci directly since a briefing on July 29, 2021.

"Notably, you are missing from this esteemed witness panel, despite being the Chief Medical Advisor to President Biden and the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases," Scalise wrote in a letter to Fauci.

Fauci and other administration officials have testified multiple times in the Senate.

The Hill has reached out to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and to the subcommittee's chairman, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.).

According to the subcommittee, the administration officials at the hearing are set to address the progress made as well as how the U.S. is preparing for any new variants.

The subcommittee has been focused on investigating the pandemic response under former President Trump, looking for evidence of political interference. The committee has heard closed-door testimony from a number of Trump officials, including former coronavirus coordinator Deborah Birx.

Fauci has become a top target of congressional Republicans as they conduct their own investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, seeking to find out whether the U.S.
government played a role by funding controversial "gain of function" research in Wuhan, China.

Several Republicans in both the House and Senate allege Fauci has not been transparent and honest about his agency's funding activities, accusations he denies.