WATCH: Fauci defends his leadership during COVID-19 pandemic during Congressional testimony

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who shepherded much of the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, defended his leadership Monday before the House Oversight and Reform Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Prior to his retirement in December 2022, Fauci said he had worked for NIH for 54 years, including nearly four decades in the role of director.

"Under my leadership, we were well-positioned to respond to COVID-19," Fauci told the committee Monday, including investment in and the swift development and deployment of mRNA vaccines to prevent severe outcomes and further death from the virus. Fauci, who testified before the committee behind closed doors in January, has been the subject of partisan attacks and death threats related to his work on the pandemic.

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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