Who Is Dr. Anthony Fauci? Everything to Know About the Physician-Scientist and His Congressional Hearing

Dr. Anthony Fauci was thrust back into the national spotlight during a heated Senate hearing focused on the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The former top U.S. health official, who left federal government service in 2022, appeared before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on July 29 after being subpoenaed by Republican Senator Rand Paul. He invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times as he was questioned about the origins of COVID-19 and the government's handling of the pandemic, at one point describing Paul as "unhinged."

Following the headline-making appearance, here's everything to know about Fauci and his recent congressional hearing.

Fauci was born on December 24, 1940, in Brooklyn, N.Y., to Italian immigrant parents. After the family moved to the Dyker Heights neighborhood, his father opened a drugstore on the ground floor of a small building he acquired in the area.

Fauci helped with the family business while attending Catholic schools. He later enrolled at Regis High School, a prestigious Jesuit institution in Manhattan.

Fauci graduated in 1962 from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., where he completed a pre-medical curriculum. He then attended Cornell University Medical College, now known as Weill Cornell Medicine, and graduated first in his class in 1966.

Following his graduation, Fauci served as house officer from 1966 to 1998 and chief resident from 1971 to 1972 at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center (now Weill Cornell Medical Center).

In 1968, Fauci joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a clinical associate at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' Laboratory of Clinical Investigation. He became a senior investigator in 1972, led the Clinical Physiology Section in 1974 and was named deputy clinical director in 1977.

He began serving as NIAID director in 1984 and was appointed coordinator of all AIDS research at NIH the following year.

Through his work, he later met his future wife, Dr. Christine Grady, with whom he shares three adult daughters.

Additionally, the physician-scientist oversaw extensive research program on infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, influenza, Zika and Ebola.

Fauci served as President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser from January 2021 until he ended his federal service in December 2022. He was also at the forefront of America's COVID-19 response as a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

Fauci announced his decision to step down from his roles as Biden's chief medical adviser, chief of NIAID's Laboratory of Immunoregulation and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in an August 2022 statement.

"After more than 50 years of government service, I plan to pursue the next phase of my career while I still have so much energy and passion for my field," he said. "I want to use what I have learned as NIAID Director to continue to advance science and public health and to inspire and mentor the next generation of scientific leaders as they help prepare the world to face future infectious disease threats."

After officially moving on from the positions in December 2022, he joined Georgetown University as a university professor in July 2023.

Before leaving office in January 2025, Biden granted Fauci with a preemptive pardon to protect him against "unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions" for allegations related to the COVID-19 pandemic or his role in the response.

During the July 29 Senate hearing led by Paul, Fauci refused to answer senators' questions about the government's COVID-19 response and the origins of the virus.

According to multiple news outlets, he invoked Fifth Amendment more than 100 times due to Paul's alleged repeated attacks on him and the senator's "obvious obsession with calling for [Fauci's] prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about [Fauci]."

"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 — quote — 'behind bars,'" he said in his opening remarks.

Fauci continued, "Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion. Therefore, although it pains me to do so because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government and my decadeslong record of cooperating with Congress, under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions."

More than 1.2 million people had died of COVID-19 in the U.S. as of August 2026, according to cumulative data from the World Health Organization.