Even The New Yorker strongly suspects it's a lab leak and knows Fauci is involved and is uneasy... And we find here a beginning of reckoning that Fauci benefited from a genuine cult of personality and that all in the Covid was not well. All in all, not bad at all, certainly far better than most! "Yet Fauci’s silence was a loss. Paul may have come at the matter with theatrics and ill will, but some of his questions, in their most basic forms, are worth exploring, because the debate about where the novel coronavirus came from is ongoing, divisive, and important. One scenario, which Fauci has favored, involves a naturally occurring jump from bats to humans, probably via some other species; another postulates a lab leak, most likely from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, in the Chinese city where COVID-19 first emerged. Some of the Wuhan lab’s work involved developing new variants of coronaviruses. (Embedded in the Fauci-Paul conflict is a genuine dispute over the definition and risks of what is called “gain of function” research.) The institute also received funding from NIAID, via a sub-grant from a nonprofit. According to NIAID, however, the coronaviruses that were the subject of that grant were not closely related to the one that caused the pandemic. If the diary entries are any indication, Fauci, in the midst of the pandemic, also savored his own press coverage and lionization. There are too many mentions of Julia Roberts and of Fauci bobblehead dolls. In the hearing, Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, accused Fauci of being on a narcissistic “power trip” (which is the kind of journey that Hawley himself seems to relish). In Fauci’s defense, idolatry is a group effort. Thousands of Americans were buying those bobbleheads, and someone had to publish the flattering articles he read with pleasure. Particularly after his split with Trump, Fauci became something of a politicized totem, for better and worse. Despite the near-miracle of the vaccine, which became available in December, 2020, there was much about the pandemic response that was far from perfect, in both blue and red states. Why, for example, wasn’t there an all-government effort to get schools reopened sooner and more consistently? There were reasonable concerns about infection and the impact on teachers and on vulnerable family members. Still, the costs of those closures have become more clear with each passing year. Watching Fauci as he sat listening was a reminder of how little anyone really knew back in 2020. Most of the world was fumbling and scared, and Fauci seemed to have some idea of what to do. But, even acting on the best evidence available, and with the best of intentions, there were times when he, too, must have been guessing. Realizing that truth would be a route toward not only better preparedness going forward but also a more general granting of grace. If Fauci has regrets about the pandemic, he wouldn’t be alone." newyorker.com/magazine/2026/…