In an appearance Thursday on Fox News Primetime, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., reprimanded COVID czar Anthony Fauci for lying to the Senate about whether the NIH had funded “gain-of-function” research in coronaviruses at China’s Wuhan bioweapons facility.
Rand Paul blasts Anthony Fauci after NIH admits gain-of-function funding | Fox News https://t.co/e03PLKVNXW
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) October 22, 2021
Paul said that he and other lawmakers have referred Fauci to the Department of Justice for investigation.
In a letter to Congress this week, Lawrence A. Tabak of the NIH admitted that the Wuhan research did included “gain-of-function” which previously Fauci had denied several times under oath, even when pressed by a skeptical Paul.
“He should be held accountable because what we have developed as a system of health care in our country where doctors are afraid to speak out because they will cut out their research funding, doctors who have talked about innovative treatment to try to help people survive COVID are being lectured and told we will take your license,” Paul told Fox host Will Cain.
Paul and Fauci sparred at a Senate hearing in July after Paul asked Fauci if the NIH had funded “gain-of-function” research at the Wuhan facility, with Paul warning Fauci that it is a crime to lie to Congress.
Fauci denied the allegation about research funding and said that Paul didn’t know what he was talking about.
“I have not lied before Congress. I have never lied. Certainly not before Congress. Case closed,” Fauci said according to CNBC, to which Paul accused Fauci of “obfuscating the truth.”
“You are implying that what we did resulted in the deaths of individuals,” Fauci concluded. “I totally resent that, and if anyone is lying here, senator, it is you.”
Paul told Fox News that he doubts that Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, will have time to investigate Fauci. Instead, the DOJ is busy investigating “moms complaining about what they are teaching in school,” said Paul sarcastically.
Paul also raised doubts about the government’s desire to get to the bottom of the origins of the COVID virus.
“Five million people died from a virus that came out of a lab—wouldn’t we want to know, wouldn’t we want to prevent this from happening again?” Paul asked.
“This virus is very deadly,” he continued. “What if we had a virus that had a 15% mortality rate?”
