The controversies Anthony Fauci found himself at the centre of during US' Covid fight

US's top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, who became the country's face during the Covid-19 pandemic will depart from the federal government in December. Fauci, 81, has led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in the US since 1984. He joined the National Institute of Health in 1968 at the age of 27. 

In his career spanning nearly five decades, Fauci was advisor to seven US Presidents. He was a leader in federal response to HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases even before the coronavirus hit the world. Most recently, he served as the medical adviser to US President Joe Biden. He had a good run in several years until Covid-19 struck the world. 

It was basically handling of Covid-19 in US where Fauci caught himself in the storm. That was followed by his dictate to not wear mask initially which he withdrew later and also his suspicions regarding the origins of the Covid-19 pathogen. He also had differences with former US President Donald Trump and his parties lawmakers. 

What were the controversies about? The biggest controversy that surrounded Fauci's claim were the 3,000 emails which were obtained by the Washington Post, Buzzfeed News and CNN through Freedom of  Information Act (FOIA) which gave information about how he dealt with Covid-19 in the initial days of the outbreak. 

The Wuhan lab controversy: A January 2020 email to Dr Fauci from the director of country's largest research biomedical facility suggested the "unusual features" of the virus indicated that it might have been engineered. Fauci replied to it by saying that he will reach out via phone.

Fauci also expressed his suspicion again in 2021. On May 11, 2021, at the United Facts of America: A Festival of Fact-Checking, Fauci was asked whether the virus could have naturally . To this, Fauci replied by saying he was not convinced with the theory. "I am not convinced with the theory that the virus "developed naturally", Fauci had said.

"I think we should continue to investigate what went on in China until we find out to the best of our ability exactly what happened. Certainly , the people who investiagted it say it was the emergence of from an animal reservoir that then infected individuals, but it could have been something else, and we need to find that out," Fauci said, Hindustan Times reported.

Did US fund lab in China? In August 2021, Republican lawmakers cited "ample evidence" that a lab in China was funded by US in creating a virus that infects humans. Senator Rand Paul had alleged that US money was used to make viruses more deadly and infectious, a process known as "gain-of-function".

Fauci, who was the director of NIAID, a part of US government's National Institute of Health (NIH), had rejected this claim.

However, it also came to light that NIH in 2014 had funded an organisation that collaborated with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, BBC reported. The organisation was US based EcoHealth Alliance and it received $3.7 million from the NIH out of which $600,000 was given to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. 

In 2019, the project was renewed for another five years but then pulled by the Trump administration after the outbreak of the virus. Anthony Fauci, despite all this, continued to say that NIH did not fund research that fueled Covid-19 virus in 2020.