India, July 29 -- The hearing of Dr. Anthony Fauci before the Senate committee brought back many of the COVID-19 conspiracy theories that first surfaced during the 85-year-old's tenure as Medical Advisor to the President from 2021 to 2022.

It was also inevitable that two of the US far-right's favorite characters for conspiracy theories: Bill Gates and China, found a way into the hearing, thanks to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee chair, Sen. Rand Paul. Dr Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer the question - a stance he repeated 111 times throughout the hearing. He did the same with questions surrounding China and Bill Gates' role in the COVID-19 research, but it sparked a lot of buzz on so...