WATCH: Dr. Anthony Fauci calls allegations of improper conduct ‘simply preposterous’

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the public face of the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, defended himself in a House subcommittee hearing against accusations of improper conduct.

Responding to an allegation that he influenced publication of an academic paper on the virus' origins, Fauci said scientists who initially thought the virus was leaked from a lab changed their minds of their own accord.

“The accusation being circulated that I influenced the scientists to change their minds by bribing them with millions of dollars in grant money is absolutely false and simply preposterous,” Fauci said.

The hearing was the latest effort among Republicans to question the U.S. response to the pandemic, including how pandemic prevention plans were created and communicated. Monday's session was in part focused on the origins of the pandemic and the nation's role in virus research in China. There are a number of theories about how COVID's spread began, including a natural jump from animals to humans and a laboratory leak. Intelligence assessments on how the virus began are inconclusive.

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