Newly released diary entries attributed to Dr. Anthony Fauci are drawing renewed attention after Sen. Rand Paul made them public. The entries, which were first highlighted by Justin Hart of the Rational Ground Substack, cover several months during 2020 and provide Fauci’s personal account of internal debates surrounding COVID-19 treatments and vaccine approvals in the months leading up to the presidential election.
According to the diary, Fauci believed some efforts to accelerate emergency authorizations for COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics were being driven by political considerations rather than scientific evidence. The entries also describe conversations in which Fauci said he personally supported Food and Drug Administration officials who were resisting pressure to approve products before they believed sufficient data had been collected.
The diary spans roughly five months in 2020 and references numerous senior government officials involved in the pandemic response. Among those mentioned are Peter Marks, who led the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research; then-FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn; White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows; Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar; NIH Director Francis Collins; Fauci deputy Cliff Lane; and Larry Horowitz, whom Fauci identified as someone working closely with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
