On Jan. 19, 2025, Joe Biden issued an executive grant of clemency for Dr. Anthony Fauci, a government bureaucrat since 1968 and head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984. On July 29, 2026, before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, chaired by physician and Senator Rand Paul, Fauci refused to answer any questions and pleaded the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times. Last month, Senator Ron Johnson sought to have the former NIAID boss testify before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Fauci rejected the request, but this does not exhaust the investigative possibilities.
The government’s first COVID mouthpiece was Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD). Dr. Messonnier’s series of telephone briefings in early 2020 set forth everything Fauci would say, starting on Jan. 17 with the claim that the “novel coronavirus” emerged from a “market” in Wuhan. In February and March, Messonnier warned that there was no immunity and that there would be “community spread.” Schools and business would have to be shut down, with possible loss of income for Americans, who needed to avoid mass gatherings.
The CDC had a team in China for many years, said Messonnier, who was careful to compliment China’s handling of the outbreak. On the other hand, Messonnier told reporters she was “not at liberty” to speak about travel to the United States from Wuhan.
In May2021, Messonnier suddenly resigned from the CDC. Biden’s CDC director, Rochelle Walensky, hailed the NCIRD boss as a “true hero.” Messonnier moved on to the Skoll Foundation as executive director for pandemic prevention and health systems, but some members of Congress remained curious about her performance with the CDC.
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