Former CBS News journalist Brittney Hopper said she was temporarily pulled off the air during the COVID-19 pandemic after she began questioning Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Hopper spoke on News24 in Australia about Fauci's decision to invoke his Fifth Amendment right more than 100 times during a congressional hearing Wednesday.
Hopper, who worked for CBS News Los Angeles until 2022, said she was reporting extensively on COVID and was on the front lines when she started to doubt the official guidance. «I remember after a couple of years of dealing with hearing this man and interviewing this man and having to wear masks and having our kids out of school for years, I remember questioning what he was doing», she said. «I got in trouble and pulled off air for a couple of days because I started questioning him. You weren't supposed to question the agenda and the narrative at that point.»
She said she later apologized and returned to work covering the story as expected. Looking back, she described her role in mainstream media in blunt terms. «I was their puppet on mainstream media for so many years», Hopper said. She added that she hopes more people are waking up to what she called a lack of journalistic integrity in pandemic coverage.
Hopper said Fauci's refusal to answer questions did not shock her, but she hoped the hearing would open people's eyes. She cited the six-foot social distancing rule and the guidance to wear masks outdoors even when alone as policies that went largely unquestioned. «There were so many questions that were left unanswered», she said. She gave Fauci some benefit of the doubt in the first year, when scientists were still learning about the virus, but said news agencies later «jumped on the bandwagon with him and just feared so many Americans».
CBS News noted that Hopper had left the network before editor-in-chief Bari Weiss took over in 2025.
Fauci faced sharp criticism from Republican lawmakers during his appearance before Congress, where he declined to answer questions by invoking the Fifth Amendment 111 times. His performance reignited debate over his handling of the pandemic and prompted calls for accountability from GOP members.
Fauci also faced renewed scrutiny over excerpts from his private diary that appeared to contradict his public statements. Despite saying in 2022 that he did not endorse COVID lockdowns, Fauci wrote in several 2020 diary entries that he recommended lockdowns to city, state and federal officials, including President Donald Trump.
Hopper framed her experience as a warning about the pressure journalists faced during the public health emergency. She said she hoped Fauci's hearing would serve as a wake-up call for news organizations around the world. «That first year, many of us — we had no idea what was going on», she said.
