WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert until leaving the government in 2022, faced heated questioning Monday from Republican lawmakers about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] A Republican-led subcommittee has spent over a year probing the nation’s response to the pandemic and whether U.S.-funded research in China may have played any role in how it started.