Newly released pandemic-era diary entries from Dr. Anthony Fauci are reopening one of the most consequential controversies of the COVID-19 response: who pushed America’s schools to close, and who should be held accountable for the consequences?
For years, Fauci pushed back against critics who blamed him for school shutdowns.
During an October 2022 ABC News interview, Fauci responded to criticism over prolonged closures by saying:
“They always come back and say, Fauci was responsible for closing schools. I had nothing to do.”
But Fauci’s own contemporaneous diary now provides considerably more context.
According to entries released by Sen. Rand Paul, Fauci recorded advising New York officials to close schools during the critical days of March 2020. He wrote that he “convinced” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to close city schools, while also recording that California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s chief of staff told him the governor had decided to close schools, bars and restaurants based partly on Fauci’s public appearances.
The diary does not establish that Fauci personally ordered America’s schools closed—he had no authority to do that.
But it does undermine any broad interpretation of the claim that he had “nothing to do” with school closures.
March 2020: Fauci Advises Cuomo To Close Schools
The chronology begins March 9, 2020, as COVID-19 cases were increasing in New York.
According to Fauci’s diary, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo contacted him seeking advice concerning schools in an area of Westchester County experiencing elevated transmission.
Fauci’s recorded response was straightforward:
“I tell him yes.”
That was advice—not an executive order.
Governors, mayors, school districts and other authorities ultimately possessed the power to close schools.
But Fauci was one of America’s most influential infectious-disease officials, and political leaders were turning to him for guidance during a rapidly developing emergency.
Six days later, his influence became even clearer.
Fauci: “I Convinced” De Blasio To Close New York City Schools
On March 15, Fauci documented a conversation with then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The diary entry attributed to Fauci states:
“I spoke with Bill de Blasio (Mayor — NYC) and convinced him based on what I was saying publicly and my conversation saying to close the NYC schools.”
Fauci added that de Blasio had already been moving in that direction based on what Fauci was saying publicly.
According to the diary, Fauci also urged de Blasio to close bars and restaurants, and the mayor indicated that he would rely on Fauci’s recommendation.
The next day, New York City’s public schools were closed.
The distinction matters.
Fauci didn’t possess the legal authority to close those schools himself.
But if his diary is taken at face value, he believed at the time that his recommendation had helped persuade the mayor to do it.
That makes his 2022 declaration that he had “nothing to do” with school closures worthy of renewed scrutiny.
California Was Listening Too
New York wasn’t the only state Fauci discussed in his March 15 entry.
He also recorded a conversation involving Ann O’Leary, then chief of staff to California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
According to Fauci’s diary:
“Ann said that based on my TV appearances today and yesterday, the Governor has decided to close the schools in California as well as the bars and restaurants.”
Again, Fauci wasn’t issuing the closure order.
Newsom and California officials were making policy decisions.
But Fauci’s own diary records his public messaging as influencing those decisions.
That is a materially different picture from the impression created by saying he had “nothing to do” with school closures.
What Fauci Said Publicly In 2022
ABC’s Jonathan Karl asked Fauci in October 2022 whether keeping schools closed for extended periods had been a mistake.
Fauci acknowledged there were “deleterious collateral consequences” from such policies but resisted accepting responsibility for the closures.
He argued that critics ignored his later statements advocating keeping schools open and then said:
“Fauci was responsible for closing schools. I had nothing to do.”
Karl noted that Fauci was not the head of a school board.
Fauci replied:
“Exactly.”
That point remains true.
Fauci was not a governor.
He wasn’t a mayor.
He wasn’t a superintendent.
He didn’t control school boards.
But responsibility and influence aren’t identical concepts.
The newly released diary suggests Fauci exercised substantial influence during the crucial period when some of America’s largest school systems were deciding whether to shut their doors.
The 15 Days That Changed America
On March 16, 2020, the White House unveiled the “15 Days to Slow the Spread” guidelines.
Americans were told to avoid gatherings, limit social interaction and take extraordinary measures to slow transmission.
Schools across the country rapidly transitioned toward closures and remote learning.
What initially appeared to many Americans to be a temporary emergency measure became something much longer in numerous communities.
Some students remained trapped in remote or disrupted education far beyond the initial shutdown.
The consequences would eventually become impossible to ignore.
America’s Children Paid A Heavy Price
The debate over school closures isn’t merely political history.
Children lived through the consequences.
National assessment results after the pandemic documented severe academic setbacks, particularly in mathematics and reading, while researchers continue examining the effects of remote learning, absenteeism and broader pandemic disruption.
The damage wasn’t distributed equally.
Students from disadvantaged families frequently had fewer resources for remote learning.
Parents struggled to work while supervising children at home.
Students lost access to teachers, counselors, friends, extracurricular activities and other services schools normally provide.
That doesn’t mean every school closure in March 2020 was unjustifiable.
Officials were confronting an unfamiliar virus with incomplete information.
But temporary emergency decisions and prolonged closures are different questions—and public officials should be accountable for explaining what they recommended, when their recommendations changed and why.
Fauci’s Diary Shows Something Else: His Sudden Fame
The school-closure entries aren’t the only passages attracting attention.
Fauci also repeatedly documented his extraordinary rise to celebrity status during the pandemic.
On March 10, 2020, he wrote:
“For better or worse, I am becoming an international celebrity.”
Other entries chronicle media profiles, television appearances, celebrity encounters, merchandise and the extraordinary attention surrounding him.
By May 2020, Fauci wrote that describing himself as among the country’s most famous and discussed people was not hyperbole.
The diary contains references to celebrities including Julia Roberts, Joan Baez and Barbra Streisand, along with television appearances and portrayals of Fauci in popular culture.
Those passages do not prove misconduct.
But they provide an unusual window into the private thoughts of a government scientist who suddenly became one of the most recognizable people in America while the country was experiencing an unprecedented crisis.
Rand Paul Says Fauci’s Public And Private Stories Differ
Sen. Rand Paul has spent years investigating Fauci’s role in the pandemic response and the controversy surrounding research connected to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Paul released the diary before Fauci’s scheduled testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
The senator argues that Fauci’s private writings reveal discrepancies with his subsequent public statements.
That contention will now face scrutiny in a setting where Fauci can answer questions under oath.
The school-closure passages offer particularly concrete questions:
Did Fauci advise Cuomo to close schools?
Did he tell de Blasio to close New York City schools?
Did Fauci believe his public appearances influenced Newsom’s decision?
And if so, what precisely did Fauci mean in 2022 when he said he had “nothing to do” with school closures?
Those questions can be asked without exaggerating what the documents establish.
COVID Origins Questions Return With The Diaries
The diaries are also reigniting arguments surrounding the origins of SARS-CoV-2.
Early entries show Fauci and other scientists discussing whether characteristics of the virus could be consistent with laboratory manipulation.
But uncertainty among scientists during those early conversations should not be transformed into proof that they knew SARS-CoV-2 was engineered.
The origins question remains contested.
Different U.S. government agencies have reached differing assessments, with some favoring a laboratory-associated origin and others favoring natural emergence or remaining uncertain.
What the diary helps establish is that laboratory-origin possibilities were being seriously discussed among Fauci and prominent scientists early in the outbreak.
That history is relevant because the lab-leak hypothesis later became one of the most politically explosive scientific questions of the pandemic.
What The Diary Does—and Doesn’t—Prove
The newly released material deserves scrutiny, but the strongest case is made by distinguishing documented facts from conclusions.
Fauci’s diary indicates he advised New York officials about school closures and believed his communications influenced policy.
It records his extraordinary rise to fame.
It documents early scientific debate surrounding the virus’s origins.
But the diary alone does not prove that Fauci single-handedly closed America’s schools, deliberately caused educational harm, or knowingly lied about every disputed aspect of the pandemic.
Governors, mayors, school boards, teachers unions, public-health agencies and local officials all played roles in America’s school policies.
Accountability should follow the evidence wherever it leads.
And Fauci’s own words are now part of that evidence.
The Prophetic Dimension: When Fear Gives Institutions Extraordinary Power
COVID-19 demonstrated how quickly ordinary life can change during a national emergency.
Businesses closed.
Churches restricted services.
Schools emptied.
Travel stopped.
Governments issued emergency orders affecting hundreds of millions of people.
Whether individual measures were justified is a question that should be evaluated on evidence.
But Christians should recognize the broader biblical warning about surrendering discernment during times of fear.
Second Timothy 1:7 reminds believers that God has not given His people a spirit of fear, while Proverbs 18:17 warns that the first account can appear convincing until it is examined.
Scripture repeatedly emphasizes truth, wisdom and accountability.
The prophetic significance of the COVID era isn’t that every mandate or public-health official fulfilled a specific prophecy.
It is that modern societies demonstrated how rapidly emergency conditions can produce enormous centralized authority—and how technology can make restrictions possible on a scale previous generations could barely imagine.
Revelation 13 describes a future system possessing extraordinary economic and social control.
Christians should therefore pay attention whenever fear, technology and centralized authority converge.
Not because every emergency measure is prophetic fulfillment.
But because Scripture commands believers to watch, discern and test what they are told.
Five Years Later, America Still Deserves Answers
The question isn’t whether Anthony Fauci personally possessed a switch that closed every classroom in America.
He didn’t.
The question is whether one of America’s most influential public-health officials played a meaningful role in encouraging school closures—and later minimized that role.
His own diary makes that question unavoidable.
The American people deserve a complete accounting of how pandemic decisions were made.
Parents deserve it.
Teachers deserve it.
Taxpayers deserve it.
And above all, the generation of children who lived through one of the greatest disruptions of American education deserves it.
Fauci will now have an opportunity to explain his own words.
Congress should make sure he does.
News Watchmen will continue following Fauci’s testimony, the newly released diary records, investigations into COVID’s origins and the continuing effort to establish exactly how America’s pandemic policies were made.
Related News Watchmen Coverage
Opinion: July 29 Could Be Anthony Fauci’s Most Consequential Day Yet
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Fauci personally order schools across America to close?
No. Governors, mayors, school boards and other state and local authorities had decision-making power. But Fauci’s diary records him advising officials and describing himself as having “convinced” New York City’s mayor to close schools.
What did Fauci say about school closures in 2022?
During an ABC News interview, Fauci rejected claims that he was responsible and said, “I had nothing to do.”
What does Fauci’s diary say about Bill de Blasio?
Fauci recorded that he had “convinced” de Blasio to close New York City schools based on his public statements and their conversation.
Did Fauci influence California’s decision?
His diary says Newsom chief of staff Ann O’Leary told him that Fauci’s television appearances contributed to the governor’s decision to close schools, bars and restaurants.
Who released Fauci’s diary?
Sen. Rand Paul released more than 1,100 pages of Fauci’s pandemic-era diary records in July 2026 ahead of Fauci’s scheduled Senate testimony.
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EDTA
Glutathion
NAC
Zinc
Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid)
Vitamin D3
Quercetin
Cats Claw
Nicotine
Bromelain
Curcumin
Dr. McCullough recommends taking this treatment triad for at least three months for anyone suffering from or worried about post-COVID or post-vaccine syndromes.
Nattokinase, Bromelain, and Curcumin are available over the counter at just about any health food store or pharmacy.
Selenium
Dandelion Root
Black Sativa Extract (may facilitate cellular repair)
Green Tea Extract (provides added defenses at the cellular level through scavenging for free radicals)
Irish Sea Moss (could help rebuild damaged tissue and muscle)
In an acute emergency, if you get Covid, Dr Ardis suggests taking low doses of Nicotine in the form of Lozenges, Gum, or Patches for a few days until symptoms subside
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