Fauci diaries released by Sen. Rand Paul reveal COVID origin doubts, evolving Trump ties: Report

Washington DC: More than 1,000 pages of personal journal entries written by former top US infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci have been released by Republican Senator Rand Paul ahead of a Senate hearing on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, shedding light on Fauci’s early thinking on the virus, his often-complicated relationship with then-President Donald Trump (2017-2021), and his clashes with Paul, according to CBS News.

Paul, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, subpoenaed Fauci to testify before the panel as part of its investigation into the origins of the coronavirus. The Kentucky senator has long argued that the virus may have leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, accusing Fauci and other US officials of misleading Congress and the public about the pandemic’s origins, CBS News reported.

The journals span from December 2019, shortly before the United States declared a public health emergency, to December 2022, when Fauci stepped down after nearly four decades as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

According to CBS News, the diary entries reveal Fauci’s early uncertainty over how the virus emerged. In a January 2020 entry, Fauci wrote, “We know the market was not the source, it was the amplifier,” while adding that “somewhere the virus jumped from animals to humans.” About a week later, he referred to a conference call in which several leading infectious disease experts considered that the coronavirus “might not have originated in nature.”

Paul argued the journals contradicted Fauci’s public messaging. “Dear Diary” reflected uncertainty, while publicly he suggested “it’s implausible that it came from the lab,” Paul said, calling the discrepancy “really astounding,” according to CBS News.

Fauci also addressed the growing debate over the virus’s origins in a May 26, 2021, journal entry. “I had always said that the very highly likelihood is that the virus originated naturally from an animal reservoir jumping to a human,” he wrote. However, he added that with increasing speculation over a possible laboratory leak, “no one is 100 per cent certain of the origin including me and so I am calling for a thorough investigation.”

CBS News noted that while many scientists continue to favour a natural spillover from animals, the FBI has assessed the virus “most likely” resulted from a laboratory incident in Wuhan. The CIA, in a January 2025 assessment, also leaned toward the lab leak hypothesis, though with “low confidence.”

The journals also provide a detailed account of Fauci’s interactions with Trump during the pandemic. In a May 21, 2020, entry, Fauci reflected on his unexpected public profile, writing, “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 recognisable people in the world.”

He added, “POTUS seems to be enamoured of me even though I am taking the spotlight away from him. We are developing a very unique and interesting relationship.” According to CBS News, Fauci initially recorded several cordial exchanges with Trump and expressed discomfort with media portrayals suggesting the two were feuding. He wrote that a widely circulated image appearing to show him facepalming during one of Trump’s press briefings “was not my intention.”

However, the relationship became increasingly strained. Fauci criticised some of Trump’s lengthy COVID-19 briefings as “painfully rambling” and “laborious,” while recounting private disagreements over pandemic messaging. Ahead of a May 2020 Operation Warp Speed event, Fauci wrote that Trump told him, “Tony, you are losing me trillions of f***ing dollars,” before later reassuring him, “You and I are OK.” Trump also objected to officials wearing masks during the event, saying it “sends the wrong signal,” though Fauci opposed the idea.

According to the journal, Trump later asked, “Tony, we are good, right?” to which Fauci replied, “We are good Mr. President.” The diaries also chronicle Fauci’s long-running disputes with Paul. In an April 2021 entry, Fauci wrote that Paul was among those promoting conspiracy theories “to try and connect me with the virus from WUHAN.” Referring to criticism following the release of his emails, Fauci wrote, “Even with that, the crazies such as Senator Rand Paul are saying things like ‘I told you so’… Total nut cakes!”

Following a heated Senate exchange in July 2021 over whether the National Institutes of Health funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab, Fauci recorded, “I finished by looking him in the eye and telling him that if anybody is lying here it is he.” CBS News reported that Fauci’s October 2021 journal continued to document the confrontation, with the former health official writing that Senator Paul “continues his assault on me.”