Anthony Fauci refused to answer Senate questions about COVID's origins, and his own diary makes his handling of the pandemic look worse — bad for public trust in health agencies.

• Fauci gave an opening statement attacking Senator Rand Paul, then pleaded the Fifth on every question, from lab-leak research to whether he deleted emails.
• His 1,100-page diary, written on a government laptop, shows he privately doubted the Wuhan wet market was the source, calling it "the amplifier," not the origin.
• Early in 2020 he quietly organized scientists to write the "proximal origin" paper dismissing the lab leak, even though some authors privately thought an accidental lab escape was likely.
• The diary also shows he pushed to close New York and California schools, despite later publicly claiming he had "nothing to do with school closures."
• A blanket Biden pardon means he faces no criminal risk, so pleading the Fifth reads as an inability to defend what he said during the pandemic.

Outlook: The origin fight stays stuck in partisan gridlock, leaving the country poorly prepared and distrustful of health officials heading into any future pandemic.