Dr. Anthony Fauci said in congressional testimony that he reviewed no scientific evidence behind the specific recommendations for masking children or maintaining 6-foot social distancing before advocating these policies during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The revelations come from the full transcript, released Friday, of Fauci’s closed-door transcribed interview session in January before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. The publication comes days before the former director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is slated to testify in his first public hearing since his retirement in December 2022.
When asked about social distancing recommendations that were implemented in businesses and schools during the early stages of the pandemic, Fauci said he did not recall where the precise number of 6 feet came from.
“It just sort of appeared,” Fauci said in his interview. “I don’t recall, like, a discussion of whether it should be 5 or 6 or whatever.”
