Need to know: Are emails to Anthony Fauci about Wuhan lab leak a smoking gun?

During the pandemic, the infectious disease chief Dr Anthony Fauci has become the authoritative face of America’s fight against coronavirus.  

But the publication of thousands of his private emails this week offers a rare insight into the panic and chaos he faced at the start of the crisis. Here’s what you need to know.

Why were his emails published?

Over 3,000 pages of emails, spanning from January to June 2020, were obtained by the Washington Post, Buzzfeed News and CNN through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

What do the emails say about the early days of the pandemic?

The emails reveal confusion at the beginning of the pandemic, as Fauci struggled to keep up with emerging data on issues such as face masks.  

On 5 February he told Sylvia Burwell, a former secretary of health and human services under Barack Obama: “Masks are really for infected people to prevent them from spreading infection to people who are not infected rather than protecting uninfected people from acquiring infection,” he wrote. He said typical drug store masks were “not really effective in keeping out the virus” and told Burwell: “I do not recommend that you wear a mask”.

By the end of March, however, Fauci had become more receptive to the idea of masking up. He wrote an email to a Dr David Katz of La Jolla, California saying: “There are some data from NIH that indicate that mere speaking without coughing elicits aerosols that travel a foot or two. If that is the case, then perhaps universal wearing of masks in [sic] the most practical way to go.”

On 3 April, then-President Donald Trump announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was recommending Americans wear cloth or fabric face coverings in public places. States including New York soon announced that residents should wear masks when social distancing was not possible.

Did the emails say anything about the Wuhan lab leak theory?

Among the most interesting revelations from the dispatches is that Fauci received a flurry of correspondence about the theory that coronavirus leaked from a lab in Wuhan.

One such email sent to Fauci on 16 April 2020 by Francis Collins, the director of the National Institute of Health, under the subject line “conspiracy gains momentum” contained a link to a news story highlighting a Fox News report that said the allegation had merit.

Fauci’s response to Collins is entirely blacked out, but its existence at least tells us that the theory was on his radar and being taken into consideration, even if only with a view to debunking it.

Last month, Fauci said he was “not convinced” the virus originated naturally and expressed support for an investigation.

What do the emails reveal about Fauci?

The emails reveal the huge personal toll that was placed on Fauci during the pandemic. In one email sent on 18 February, weeks before Covid was declared a global pandemic, Fauci wrote that he had only been able to see his wife for 45 minutes in the previous 10 days.

Despite this, he sent earnest replies to over 1,000 messages during some of his busiest days to anxious members of the public, politicians and some celebrities. He even sent a polite thank you to an official in the office of former US Health Secretary Alex Azar who suggested that healthcare workers wear “doggie cones” amid a nationwide shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE).

He was also polite in the face of criticism from Trump. Near midnight on 11 April, the day before Easter, Marc Short, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, sent Fauci an email (which has since been heavily redacted) about some apparent crossed wires, saying: “You correctly noticed the symptoms but misdiagnosed the root cause.” Less than 13 hours after receiving Short’s email, Fauci responded: “Thanks for the note. Understood. I wish you a peaceful and enjoyable day with your family.”

What has the reaction been?

BuzzFeed’s Natalie Bettendord and Jason Leopold summarise Dr Anthony Fauci’s correspondence as “courteous, low-key, and empathetic”.

But some conservative politicians and media pundits have seized on the emails as evidence to sack Dr Fauci for his work on the pandemic response. One such critic is Republican Senator Rand Paul, who said the emails make it “abundantly clear” the doctor is “a massive fraud”.

The BBC’s Tara McKelvey said the response from the American public is likely to be as divided as ever: “Fauci’s emails are like a Rorschach ink blot: what you see in them reveals more about you than the ink blot, or, in this case, the emails.”