Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. didn't hold back when he blamed Dr. Anthony Fauci for what he called "incalculable damage" to public trust. The comments came after Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) released more than 1,000 pages of Fauci's pandemic-era journals on Monday, just ahead of a Senate hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

Speaking on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle," Kennedy said Fauci's focus was on self-promotion, not public health. "[Fauci’s] focus was on promoting himself, on getting on TV and not doing public health," Kennedy said. He argued that officials elevated Fauci as an unquestionable authority while critics were "marginalized, vilified, demonized, censored."

Kennedy also accused the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director of misleading Americans about COVID-19's origins. "The press was part of this collaboration," he said. "It also did incalculable damage to public health."

Journals Renew Fight Over COVID Origins

The records include a January 2020 entry in which Fauci wrote that early evidence suggested the Wuhan market "was not the source, it was the amplifier." He noted that the earliest infection appeared to have occurred in December 2019.

Paul highlighted the entry on X, calling it "a blatant violation, a betrayal of the public trust," and alleging that "Fauci engaged in a cover-up from the very beginning of the pandemic." Paul has long pursued Fauci over U.S.-funded coronavirus research and earlier warned, "If you lied to Congress and helped cover up the origins of a pandemic, you will answer for it."

Fauci has denied misleading Congress or suppressing the lab-leak hypothesis. During 2024 testimony, he said a laboratory origin was "not inherently a conspiracy theory" and maintained that evidence favored animal-to-human transmission. The World Health Organization said in 2025 that major information gaps remain and both zoonotic spillover and a laboratory incident must stay under consideration.

Fauci Faces Paul At Senate Hearing

Paul's Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee scheduled Fauci's testimony for Wednesday, July 29, at 8:30 am. Fauci led NIAID from 1984 until retiring in 2022.

Kennedy said Paul would likely question Fauci about the diaries and warned that false testimony could carry legal consequences. "If he lies again, then he could be subject to perjury prosecution," Kennedy said.

The hearing extends a feud that produced some of the pandemic's fiercest congressional exchanges. In 2021, Fauci told Paul, "You do not know what you are talking about," while rejecting claims that NIH-funded research caused COVID-19.