Anthony Fauci refuses to answer questions during US Senate hearing about Covid origins

Former top US health official Anthony Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment during a hearing before a Republican-led Senate committee about the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. The amendment to the US Constitution states that no individual can be "compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself". Fauci's refusal to answer questions came at the beginning of the hearing on Wednesday, days after Republican Senator Rand Paul released Fauci writings in which he mused about his fame and the origins of Covid. Fauci, who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said Paul's release of his diary entries was one reason he would not answer senators' questions. "Although it pains me to do so because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government ... under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the constitution to refrain from answering your questions," Fauci said. Taking the Fifth is not an admission of guilt - it is designed to protect individuals against coercion, mistakes, and unfair burden-shifting.Fauci noted that he had previously testified under oath before several congressional committees, but he asserted that Paul has an "obvious obsession" with pushing for Fauci to be prosecuted had led him not to answer questions this time. "The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something - anything - that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, 'behind bars,'" Fauci said.