Rand Paul

July 28 (UPI) -- Journal entries from Dr. Anthony Fauci written in January 2020 say Wuhan, China, was not the source of the COVID-19 virus but may have amplified it.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., released more than a thousand pages of Fauci's journals from when he served as President Donald Trump's chief medical adviser on Tuesday. The journal entries share details about the COVID-19 pandemic and Fauci's relationship with Trump.

The journal release comes ahead of a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on Wednesday.

"Now we know the market was not the source, it was the amplifier," Fauci wrote on Jan. 26, 2020, referring to an open-air market in Wuhan, China. "Having said that, somewhere the virus jumped from animals to humans."

Paul has long subscribed to the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. He has accused government officials, including Fauci, of misleading the public about the viral outbreak.

Fauci believed that the virus "jumped" from animals to humans naturally and was not "leaked" from a Wuhan lab. However, he did not rule out the possibility of a lab leak completely.

Fauci also wrote about his sudden rise to fame during the onset of the pandemic and his "very unique and interesting relationship" with Trump.

"It is not [hyperbole] to say that today I am the most famous and talked about person in the country and one of the most recognizable [people] in the world," Fauci wrote on May 21, 2020. "POTUS seems to be enamored of me even though I am taking the spotlight away from him. We are developing a very unique and interesting relationship."

Fauci also expressed concern for how he was viewed by the public as the pandemic progressed.

"The situation continues to get 'out of control' with regard to the press reports concerning my 'flip-flopping' concerning the theory of the origin of the virus," he wrote.