Dr. Anthony Fauci raised eyebrows over the weekend for his recently released pandemic-era diary entries, some of which included reflections on his own newfound fame, his interactions with influential media figures and a picture of a prayer necklace featuring himself as a saint.
Released Saturday by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., ahead of Fauci's scheduled testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee this week, the thousands of pages of diary entries recounted Fauci's daily reflections as he interacted with political leaders and became the public face of the COVID-19 pandemic response.
"I have said for years that Anthony Fauci cared more about his own image than the truth, and now his own diary proves it," Paul posted to X on Monday afternoon.
1/9 — My investigation uncovered that Anthony Fauci kept a diary.
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) July 25, 2026
What he wrote privately and what he told the country are two different stories.
Today I'm releasing his entries from December 2019 through December 2022. ???? pic.twitter.com/58LvmeYkCN
Various entries show Fauci appeared to bask in the media attention and widespread adulation he was receiving during the early days of the pandemic.
"The situation with my national and international fame is explosive and really unimaginable. It is not hyperbole to say that today I am the most famous and talked about person in the country and one of the most recognizable person [sic] in the world," Fauci wrote in his diary on May 21, 2020, noting there had been a "very flattering" front-page article about him in The Washington Post.
"Press is going wild with me," he wrote on March 22, 2020. "Front page in Washington Post yesterday and Op Ed by Maureen Dowd in NY Times today about me and my relationship with the POTUS. Profile by Peter Nicholas on me in The Atlantic."
"I am trying in several articles and on TV to clarify that the POTUS is tsalking [sic] about hope for therapies although there are no good data, while I must stick to the science and so fundamentally we are approaching this from different, but not conflicting standpoints."
On May 23, 2020, Fauci suggested that President Donald Trump and the White House were growing jealous of the attention he was receiving.
"Apparently the WH is very upset that I am being profiled and it looks like I am putting down the POTUS and becoming a star that outshines him. The press is playing into this as is the tweet storm. Very stressful!!" he wrote.
In other entries, Fauci also mentioned his interactions with various celebrities who fawned over him, such as Barbra Streisand, Julia Roberts and Steph Curry. In February 2021, he took note that comedian Kate McKinnon played him on "Saturday Night Live," and included a photo from X of a prayer necklace that depicted him as a saint and read: "Doctor Fauci, Patron Saint of Public Health."
Dr. Fauci Diary Entry of a Photo of a Prayer Medal Depicting Himself Reposted by the “Dr. Anthony Fauci Fan Club”
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 27, 2026
Is there anyone in the world who loves themselves more than Fauci? ???? pic.twitter.com/EeDvUWCJ6K
Fauci also made note of the many fans he was amassing, highlighting an article headlined "Fauci socks, Fauci doughnuts, Fauci fan art: The coronavirus expert attracts a cult following."
CRINGE: Dr. Fauci’s Diary He Kept During COVID Was Just Released
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 27, 2026
He saved clippings of articles that say “America is Thirsty” for him, pictures of donuts with his face on them and fawned over posts of people saying they “have a crush” on him.
He also bragged about his… pic.twitter.com/x2UryA5b62
The diary also revealed Fauci was highly attentive to media coverage of himself and exhibited unusually close relationships with left-leaning media figures such as CNN anchor Jake Tapper, whose Washington, D.C., home he visited for dinner.
Fauci wrote that Tapper had reached out to him privately to ensure that an interview he had done with CNN had not caused friction with the White House. When The Atlantic's Peter Nicholas suggested Fauci was "humiliated" when Tapper canceled an interview, he wrote: "F— you, Peter."
After Fauci's clash with Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, in 2021, CNN's Dana Bash texted him that he was "a better man" and relayed Wolf Blitzer's joke that no one would blame Fauci for telling Jordan to "go f— yourself." She later shared a Vanity Fair headline mocking Jordan.
Fauci's diary entries end in December 2022 as his reputation was waning with large swaths of the public, with his final entry reading: "It is clear (I have not been reporting it every day) that the far, extreme right and Qanon literally hate me."
Paul, a longtime Fauci critic who subpoenaed him to testify this week, highlighted other selections from Fauci's diary in an X thread, arguing that the private writings of the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases often differed from his public statements.
Regarding the origins of COVID-19 and discussions of the lab leak hypothesis, Paul highlighted an entry from Jan. 26, 2020, that showed the wet market theory was privately already discounted very early in the pandemic when Fauci wrote, "Now we know the market was not the source, it was the amplifier."
Paul's X account has routinely trolled Fauci, with his pinned tweet as of Monday depicting Fauci's famous 2020 "InStyle" cover photo that showed him decked out in sunglasses and star-studded socks by the pool.
"See you in 2 days," Paul wrote Monday along with the photo.
Anthony Fauci basks in media attention in unearthed diary entries | Politics
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