Fauci diaries released by Rand Paul put COVID origins back on hot seat

Sen. Rand Paul has released more than 1,000 pages of Anthony Fauci’s journal entries, putting the Fauci diaries Rand Paul fight back in the spotlight ahead of a Senate hearing on the origins of COVID-19.

Paul, the Kentucky Republican who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, subpoenaed Fauci to appear Wednesday as the panel examines how the coronavirus pandemic began. Paul has long argued that the virus may have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China and has accused Fauci and other officials of misleading Congress and the public.

The journals cover December 2019 through December 2022, according to the released material. That stretch begins just before the United States declared a public health emergency and ends when Fauci left the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, where he had served as director for nearly four decades.

What do the Fauci diaries say about COVID origins?

Some of the entries show Fauci tracking uncertainty in the earliest phase of the outbreak. In January 2020, he wrote that the market in Wuhan was “not the source” but “the amplifier,” while also writing that the virus had jumped from animals to humans somewhere.

About a week later, Fauci noted a conference call in which several senior infectious disease experts believed the coronavirus might not have emerged naturally, according to the entries.

The origin question remains disputed. Many scientists have said evidence points to a natural spillover from infected bats through other animals to people at a Wuhan market, where the first human cases were found in late 2019. The FBI has assessed that the virus “most likely” came from a lab incident in Wuhan. In January 2025, the CIA issued an assessment favoring the lab-leak theory, while saying it had “low confidence” in that conclusion.

Paul said Monday that Fauci wrote one thing privately while presenting a different view publicly. Paul accused him of public dishonesty over whether a lab origin was plausible.

Fauci’s May 26, 2021, entry described frustration over press coverage that portrayed him as changing his position. He wrote that he had said the virus was very likely to have originated naturally from an animal reservoir, but that no one, including him, was 100% certain and that he supported a thorough investigation.

What are the Fauci diaries?

The entries are Fauci’s contemporaneous notes from the pandemic years, recording his media appearances, policy fights and interactions with senior officials. Paul’s office did not respond to CBS News about how it obtained the journals.

The diaries also capture Fauci’s relationship with President Trump during the first year of the pandemic. In May 2020, Fauci wrote that Trump seemed “enamored” of him despite Fauci drawing attention, and described their relationship as unusual and interesting.

Fauci also wrote that a widely shared image appearing to show him facepalming during a Trump briefing did not reflect his intent. Other entries were sharper, with Fauci describing some Trump news conferences as rambling and laborious, and recounting arguments in which Trump accused him of undercutting him.

Before a May 2020 event for Operation Warp Speed, Fauci wrote that Trump told him he was costing him “trillions” of dollars, then said they were “OK” and that he respected him. Fauci’s notes say Trump also objected to masks at the event because they sent “the wrong signal,” while Fauci pushed back.

By August 2020, Fauci wrote that Trump was acting erratically and criticized him for posting inaccurate COVID-19 death figures, according to the entries.

The journals also show Fauci’s running feud with Paul. In 2021, Fauci wrote that Paul was spreading conspiracy theories tying him to the Wuhan virus and later described their Senate clash over whether the National Institutes of Health funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab. Paul accused Fauci of lying; Fauci wrote that he told Paul that if anyone was lying, it was Paul.

CBS News reported that it sought comment from Fauci and the White House.

This story draws on original reporting from CBS News.