FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Austin Hacker

WASHINGTON — Today, House Committee on Oversight and Reform Ranking Member James Comer (R-Ky.) released the following statement after Dr. Fauci announced his intent to retire from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in December 2022: 

“Retirement can’t shield Dr. Fauci from congressional oversight. Emails obtained by Oversight Committee Republicans reveal what Dr. Fauci said publicly about COVID origins was very different than what was said privately. Dr. Fauci was warned by top scientists early on that the virus looked genetically manipulated and likely leaked from the Wuhan lab. Despite these facts, Dr. Fauci dismissed these ideas in public as conspiracy theories. We need to know if Dr. Fauci concealed anything from government officials in order to shield the NIH’s cozy relationship with EcoHealth Alliance, a grantee that awarded taxpayer funds to the Wuhan lab to conduct dangerous research on bat coronaviruses. The American people deserve transparency and accountability about how government officials used their taxpayer dollars, and Oversight Committee Republicans will deliver.”