Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., faced off with leading COVID-era infectious diseases specialist Dr. Anthony Fauci during a Senate hearing today, bringing renewed attention to ongoing debates about the origins of the coronavirus that caused the pandemic.
Fauci, who directed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022, has long supported the theory that the virus jumped from animals to humans.
Paul and the Trump administration say that the virus leaked from a Chinese laboratory, either accidentally or intentionally. In 2025, the Trump administration took down some government websites providing COVID-19 information and replaced them with a page called “LAB LEAK: The True Origins of COVID-19,” dedicated to the controversial theory.
