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In a three-hour hearing Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the influential scientist who led the national response to COVID, refused to respond to questions about his role in school closures and the mask and social distancing guidelines that experts say have drastically set back students鈥� learning.

Subpoenaed by Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the Republican chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Fauci repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right to decline to respond, and accused the senator of an 鈥渦nhinged obsession鈥� with putting him in jail. Former President Joe Biden for any crimes he may have committed dating back to 2014 in his official roles with the government, but Paul threatened 鈥渞epercussions鈥� over Fauci鈥檚 refusal to answer questions and said the committee will vote next week on contempt charges.

鈥淵ou argue that you did not personally issue every lockdown order, close schools or impose every mandate, but officials across the country invoked your authority to justify these decisions,鈥� said Paul, who described Fauci as more concerned about his celebrity status than scientific evidence. 鈥淐hildren lost years of education.鈥�

The hearing followed Paul鈥檚 recent release of Fauci kept during the height of the COVID crisis. The entries reveal his conflict with President Donald Trump over keeping schools open and his sense of pride that officials, like former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and California Gov. Gavin Newsom鈥檚 chief of staff followed his guidance on closing schools. On June 29, 2020, for example, he noted with former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, about allowing in-person learning to resume that fall. 鈥淪ince this is the first decision among governors regarding opening for the fall term, he feels that he will be the example,鈥� Fauci wrote. 鈥淚 recommended that he delay decision for two weeks.鈥�

Democrats praised Fauci for his decades of service under both Republican and Democratic presidents and characterized the hearing as a personal vendetta by Paul. , the ranking Democrat on the committee, said the hearing was a distraction from some of the current public health issues facing the public, including a rise in measles cases. With staff cuts, he added, 鈥渢he administration has hollowed out the public health workforce.鈥� 

Republicans, he said, are just 鈥渞elitigating the past.鈥�

Much of the questioning focused on whether Fauci misled the public about the source of the virus, saying that it originated in a Chinese market, while he wrote to himself that the market was only an 鈥渁mplifier.鈥� Since 2021, Paul has accused Fauci of lying about the National Institutes of Health funding the type of lab research in China that created COVID. 

鈥淢any people would say, 鈥榃ell gosh, that doesn’t sound like a really good idea, to create viruses that don’t exist in nature to see if they’ll infect human cells,鈥� 鈥� Paul said. 鈥淭he American people deserve an apology.鈥�

鈥楽lower in learning鈥�

The nation鈥檚 schools shut down in mid-March 2020 as states responded to calls from Trump, under Fauci鈥檚 advice, to 鈥渟low the spread鈥� of the disease. But what most assumed would be short-term measures turned into more than a year of on-again, off-again closures and intense battles over mask and vaccine mandates. By October of 2020, education researchers began to estimate that students had lost more than a year of learning in reading and math.

Those predictions held up. Data from the most recent shows that overall, students still haven鈥檛 reached pre-pandemic levels in reading and math. 

Children are 鈥渟lower in learning language now because they couldn’t watch someone’s lips moving,鈥� said Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, a Republican.

He also pressed Fauci on a May 6, 2020 conversation he had with Dr. Robert Redfield, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over the fact that 1 million children had missed their measles vaccinations because of the shutdown. 

鈥淭his is terrible and needs to be addressed since on that basis alone, there would be far, far more excess deaths from measles among children than coronavirus deaths among children,鈥� Fauci wrote. 

But Sen. Maggie Hassan, a New Hampshire Democrat, blamed the current administration for the rise in measles cases. So far this year, there have been over 2,300 reported measles cases, .

鈥淐hildren are dying because there has been increased vaccine hesitancy fueled by Robert F. Kennedy,鈥� Hassan said about the Health and Human Services secretary.

During the hearing, Trump took credit for the rapid development of the COVID vaccine. But he said he relied less on Fauci鈥檚 advice over time. 

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 let him shut the country down, although he wanted to,鈥� Trump wrote. 鈥淚 went the Federalist way, and let the governors decide.鈥�

The public, however, thought the president didn鈥檛 respond quickly enough to the outbreak. In an April 2020 , 65% of Americans said Trump was too slow to take major steps to address the threat.

Some experts say what schools needed at the time was strong federal guidance on reopening. 

鈥淚t’s one thing to close for a couple weeks, which is what we all thought was going to happen,鈥� said Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, which launched one of the of schools鈥� responses to the virus. 鈥淎 couple weeks turned into months and years in some cases. That’s where the real cost to kids came in.鈥�

She declined to say Fauci is to blame for the prolonged damage to students鈥� learning and mental health. But she said neither the Trump nor the Biden administrations protected schools from the political storm over reopening and COVID protocols.

鈥淓verybody involved bears responsibility,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o many things went wrong.鈥� 

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