Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks in regards to the coronavirus throughout the White House press briefing on Tuesday, November 22, 2022.
Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
U.S. intelligence agencies under the Biden administration, in an assessment published in August 2021, were split in regards to the almost certainly origin.
One agency had moderate confidence that the virus infected people after a lab incident, while 4 agencies assessed with low confidence that the virus had a natural origin, based on the assessment, which didn’t discover those agencies.
Earlier this 12 months, Fauci announced that he’ll step down in December after leading the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for nearly 40 years.
For a long time, Fauci was respected as a public health servant on each side of the political aisle.
But because the response to the pandemic became increasingly politicized under then-President Donald Trump, a Republican, Fauci became a lightning rod for a lot of conservatives in Congress.
Along with arguing with them over the origins of the virus, Fauci has also repeatedly clashed with Republicans in Congress over mask and vaccine policy.
