“Fear is contempt, whether the fearful know it or don’t.” ― Adam Levin
Editor-In-Chief, Chester “Trip” Buckenmaier III, MD, COL (ret.), MC, USA
Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on July 29th, 2026. On the advice of his attorneys, Dr. Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, refusing to answer leading questions regarding his actions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Senator Rand Paul, who chairs the Committee, has convinced himself, despite a lack of evidence, that Dr Fauci lied to Congress concerning his actions in advising the Federal Government during the pandemic. Paul’s central accusation is that Fauci denied the National Institute of Health (NIH) funded gain-of-function research (enhancing viral pathogenicity or transmissibility) with government money when he testified under oath on May 11, 2021. Paul has also been critical of Fauci for purportedly ignoring other dissenting scientists who were skeptical of the benefits of closing schools during the pandemic. Following the embarrassing hearing, in which several republican senators hurled accusations notable only for their lack of supporting evidence, the committee voted along purely party lines to hold Dr. Fauci in contempt of Congress.
I recognize that the COVID-19 pandemic was a decidedly inconvenient event for the first Trump administration. The virus exposed how truly unprepared our government and healthcare system are when faced with a novel communicable disease that spread easily and was lethal for many. As a scientist, Dr. Fauci was placed in the impossible position of following the best scientific evidence available at the time and having to make recommendations to an administration that found the advice inopportune for political or financial interests. The fact is, the science-based reality of COVID-19 cares little for politics and likely even less for politicians. Dr. Fauci understood his loyalty was to the scientific facts as they were understood and the American public during the evolving pandemic, not to Presidential polling numbers.
Many beloved hypotheses have succumbed, much to the chagrin of politicians, to the nasty empirical facts of science. I still remember the Presidential quote on April 23, 2020:
“I see the disinfectant knocks it out in a minute — one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that.”
It was a strange and difficult time for science and Fauci, to say the least. I remember, in the early days of the pandemic, wiping off my groceries with antiseptic wipes (y’all did it also), among so many other silly actions to avoid the virus. So much was not understood about the COVID virus in those early days. What Rand Paul and many other politicians do not seem to comprehend is that the best science can ever achieve is a good guess (hypothesis) based on the available evidence at any particular moment in time. As more facts, better measures, and evidence become available, original scientific advice based on old, good guesses necessarily changes. That is not the makings of a political conspiracy, Sen. Paul; that is good science.
COVID-19 was a pandemic beyond any living scientist’s memory or experience; our country was extremely fortunate that Dr. Fauci, as the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and the many scientists he led did not succumb to the politics of COVID. Instead, these professional heroes provided the best suggestions at the time (including closing schools) to slow the spread of the contagion, likely saving countless American lives.
I will even be so bold as to admit that one of those lives was possibly my own. After the burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan, I am dubious about my crappy lungs affording my survival before the COVID vaccine and new antiviral medications (nirmatrelvir and ritonavir). I will always be grateful to Dr. Fauci and his team for providing medical leadership and direction that this country and the world so hungered for during the pandemic. I am sure their COVID advice was not perfect; it was based in science after all, but their suggestions allowed me to avoid the virus until vaccination was available.
Senator Rand Paul’s beef with Dr. Fauci is an anathema to me. I am not a politician, and the perceived benefit of this political theater for Republicans in the coming midterm elections escapes my understanding. As I have stated before in the column, I am awed and inspired by the public health service Dr. Anthony Fauci has given to this country. I am saddened there are those in political power who would sully Fauci’s legacy for some ill-conceived political goal. The contempt these politicians have shown for Fauci, and science generally, only exposes their fear. Fear, in my humble opinion, is no way to run a government. Personally, I will stick to science in all its glorious theoretical imperfections. I imagine that, in the end, history will recognize Dr. Fauci for the medical scientific legend that he is.
