Anthony Fauci apparently has discovered a brand new public health protocol, sprint away when a reporter asks basic questions.

The former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director was caught on camera outside his home after his recent appearance before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, where he reportedly invoked the Fifth Amendment more than one hundred times.

Fox News Digital correspondent Nicholas Ballasy tried to ask Fauci whether he had any regrets about his COVID decisions and whether he had anything to say about refusing to answer lawmakers under oath.

Fauci did not exactly launch into one of those polished television sermons Americans endured for years.

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Instead, he made a quick retreat, reminding the country that the man who once seemed addicted to cameras suddenly cannot find the courage to face one.

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That is quite a transformation for the same bureaucrat who spent the pandemic lecturing families, churches, schools, businesses, and anyone else within microphone range about what they were allowed to do.

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For years, Fauci occupied the national stage like a celebrity with a lab coat, popping up on friendly media outlets to explain why ordinary Americans needed to obey.

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Now that the questions are less flattering, the performance has changed.

He once fancied himself "tHe sCIeNcE." That branding always looked more like Washington ego than scientific humility, and the country is still paying the price.

The point of "The Science," at least before the pandemic priesthood got hold of it, was supposed to be chasing truth and testing claims.

It was not supposed to mean hiding behind lawyers, dodging lawmakers, and rushing indoors when a reporter asks about regrets.

Normally, staking out someone at home is not the kind of press tactic conservatives should celebrate without hesitation.

But Fauci is not some private citizen who wandered into a controversy by accident.

He was one of the most powerful public health figures in America during one of the most disruptive periods in modern history.

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He helped shape policies that touched nearly every home, school, church, workplace, and hospital in the country.

Millions of Americans were told to mask up, shut down, stay home, miss funerals, skip holidays, lose jobs, take shots, and stop asking impertinent questions.

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Fauci was there, often with that familiar tone suggesting disagreement was not merely wrong, but almost immoral.

So yes, when a reporter asks him whether he has regrets, the public has every right to hear an answer.

If he can help justify sweeping restrictions on normal life, he can manage a few sentences on a sidewalk.

The scene became even more curious because Fauci appeared to be speaking with law enforcement near a Metropolitan Police D.C. SUV.

That raises a fair question about whether he is receiving official protection, and if so, who is footing the bill.

Fauci has done rather well for himself in public life and in the fame machine that followed.

If he wants private security, he can surely find a way to cover it without leaning on the same public he seems so eager to avoid.

The episode followed his Senate "testimony" this week, where reports indicate he was not exactly pleased with how things went.

RedState’s Nick Arama noted that Fauci was overheard complaining about being “shouted at” during the hearing.

That tells you plenty about the bubble these people inhabit.

After years of ordinary citizens being scolded, censored, shamed, and smeared, Fauci seems wounded that lawmakers raised their voices while pressing him for answers.

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul was not moved by the display.

His message to Fauci was simple, " Walk it off ."

Paul has also scheduled a contempt vote before the committee next week, which could put Fauci back in a seat he plainly would rather avoid.

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That is where this belongs, not buried under media nostalgia for pandemic celebrities.

There is also renewed scrutiny from Robert F Kennedy Jr and others over what Fauci knew, what he said publicly, and what was kept from the American people.

One related charge summed up the frustration with the phrase ‘He Never Told Anybody’.

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The American people do not need another sanctimonious lecture from the man who became the face of pandemic control.

They need answers about decisions that upended lives, damaged trust, and handed enormous power to unelected experts.

Fauci can run back inside, but he cannot run from the record forever.

The country remembers the lectures, the mandates, the smug media tours, and now the sudden silence when accountability comes knocking.

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