For years, Americans were told to trust the experts, follow the science, and move on.

Now, some of the people who helped lead the government’s pandemic response are saying the questions never actually went away.

Former Trump administration coronavirus task force member Dr. Brett Giroir said Wednesday that if congressional investigators believe Dr. Anthony Fauci provided misleading information about gain-of-function research connected to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Congress has every right — and responsibility — to force answers.

Appearing on National Report with Newsmax, Giroir threw his support behind Sen. Rand Paul’s long-running effort to bring Fauci back before lawmakers.

“I support Sen. Paul 100%,” Giroir said. “I think transparency, openness, honesty is very important.”

The exchange revives one of the most contentious unresolved debates from the COVID era: whether U.S.-supported research connected to Wuhan crossed into gain-of-function territory and whether the public received clear answers about it.

Fauci has consistently maintained that the National Institutes of Health did not fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan laboratory.

Giroir challenged that position.

He said he hopes Fauci appears voluntarily to explain the decisions and definitions that shaped public understanding during the pandemic. But if that does not happen, he argued Congress should act.

“I would hope that Dr. Fauci … would voluntarily appear,” Giroir said. “But if he's not going to voluntarily appear, so let the subpoena happen.”

Giroir, who previously served as assistant secretary for health, argued the issue is larger than one official or one agency.

According to him, understanding what happened before and during COVID is necessary if policymakers want to prevent a similar crisis in the future.

During the interview, Giroir described gain-of-function research as intentionally modifying viruses or microorganisms to study whether they become more transmissible or dangerous.

“You're making super organisms that have not been seen on Earth, and they're just a result of genetic engineering,” he said.

That description sits at the center of the years-long dispute.

Giroir argued Fauci’s public defense relied on a narrow administrative definition that differs from how many scientists and physicians would understand the term.

“I absolutely believe the NIH was funding what anyone would consider gain-of-function research in the Wuhan lab,” Giroir said.

He also pointed to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, noting that officials declined to support similar proposals because they viewed them as gain-of-function work carrying serious risks.

No formal finding has concluded that Fauci intentionally misled Congress. But critics have continued pressing for additional testimony, records, and clarification about how agencies defined and approved research connected to Wuhan.

Asked what accountability would look like if investigators uncovered wrongdoing, Giroir focused less on punishment and more on public truth.

“The ultimate accountability for scientists like Dr. Fauci is to be proven that he made misstatements before Congress and misled the American people,” Giroir said.

“I think that would be the highest level of accountability, and, if he did so, I hope that Sen. Paul and the committee clearly uncover that.”

The political battles of the pandemic may have faded from daily headlines. The questions that came out of them have not.

And for many Americans, accountability was never supposed to end when the emergency declarations did.