Anthony Fauci’s diaries take aim at News Corp journalist Sharri Markson’s ‘nonsense’ Covid-19 investigation

Dr. Anthony Fauci has sharply criticized a book and reporting by News Corp journalist Sharri Markson that supported the Covid-19 "lab leak" theory. In his newly released private diaries, Fauci dismissed Markson's work as a "bunch of nonsense." This comes as Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was subpoenaed by Republican Senator Rand Paul for a Senate hearing on the pandemic.

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Why would someone want to make an agent that could equally infect your own population. Something is wrong with this report. I will have to follow up on it.

During the hearing, Fauci, 85, refused to answer questions, accusing Paul of an "unhinged" campaign seeking his imprisonment. Paul has long supported the lab leak theory, which posits that Covid-19 originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Ahead of the hearing, Paul published 1,141 pages of Fauci's pandemic-era journal entries, revealing his private thoughts on the matter.

Fauci specifically targeted reporting in The Australian newspaper and Markson's book, which claimed a Wuhan facility was "immersed in genetically manipulating bat-coronaviruses in perilous experiments." He wrote in his diary that an article by Markson on May 7, 2021, which suggested Chinese military scientists discussed "weaponisation of Sars coronaviruses" years before the pandemic, "does not make any sense." He questioned the logic of creating an agent that could infect one's own population, concluding, "Something is wrong with this report."

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the same old crap is going on with the far right continuing to attack me.

Further investigation by Guardian Australia found that the document cited in Markson's article was based on a discredited 2015 book filled with conspiracy theories about biological warfare. China analysts also criticized Markson's story as misleading and alarmist. James Palmer, a deputy editor at Foreign Policy magazine, noted the article's links to conspiracy theories popular on the political right. Markson's book, "What Really Happened in Wuhan," argued against a scientific consensus on natural origins and alleged a Chinese cover-up.

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The latest written by an Australian person who says I’m the father of gain of function research quotes from the infamous Richard Ebright saying that I’m a liar and I have misled everybody about gain of function. What a bunch of nonsense! The far right continues to try and discredit me.

Fauci also expressed frustration with what he perceived as continued attacks from the "far right," writing in his diary that "the same old crap is going on." He referenced claims that he is the "father of gain of function research" and cited Richard Ebright, a proponent of the lab leak theory, as calling him a liar. Markson, however, defended her work, stating that "the majority of the intelligence community now concludes that Covid-19 likely originated in a Wuhan laboratory." She highlighted her reporting on Fauci's agency funding projects at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through EcoHealth Alliance.

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the majority of the intelligence community now concludes that Covid-19 likely originated in a Wuhan laboratory.