Senator Rand Paul launches 'The Reading Room,' a public archive of the COVID-19 origins investigations
Sen. Rand Paul
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, has launched The Reading Room, a new public-facing repository of records related to his ongoing investigation into the origins of COVID-19 and federally funded gain-of-function research.
The Reading Room is live now at www.paul.senate.gov/readingroom and will be updated on a rolling basis as new material is released.
The site’s launch includes newly released documents showing that CBP built a formal targeting action to question the president of EcoHealth Alliance, Peter Daszak, on his return from the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 origins mission — before the FBI stepped in and asked agents to stand down.
The site also includes releases from the chairman earlier this year, including documents showing the intelligence community was in contact with Dr. Baric years before the pandemic and records tracing Dr. Fauci’s connections to the national security and intelligence apparatus back to 2003.
“For years, Americans were told a lab origin wasn’t just unlikely — it was dismissed outright by the very people funding and reviewing this research,” said Paul. “These documents tell a different story. The public deserves to see the record for themselves, not just the conclusions handed down by the people who had the most to lose if the truth came out. That’s what The Reading Room is for.”
Chairman Paul intends to continue releasing documents from his investigation on a rolling basis as his work continues. Additional case files will be added to The Reading Room in the coming days and weeks.
An excerpt
Tony's Diary: What He Wrote Privately vs. What He Said Publicly
Fauci’s personal diary reveals that as early as January 31, 2020, he was told by top virologists that the virus’s furin cleavage site raised real doubts about a natural origin, with about half the scientists on that initial call believing it looked “constructed.”
Despite this early private uncertainty, Fauci spent the following years publicly and confidently dismissing the lab leak theory while insisting the science was settled. The diary also documents his private frustration and defensiveness over gain-of-function funding questions tied to EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology — even as he told Congress under oath that no such research had occurred.
For more, go to https://www.paul.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/2026.07.24_Tonys…