Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health, who has been one of the leading figures in the federal government’s response to COVID-19, sounds fed up with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). Throughout the pandemic, Paul has been a contrarian, opting to consistently go after government efforts to keep people safe and alive, and now, Paul has been promoting the idea that U.S. federal authorities funded what he calls “gain of function” virus research at a lab in Wuhan, China. Fauci has explained, however, how what Paul is alleging is simply incorrect — and at a Tuesday Senate hearing, Fauci told Paul that he wanted to “officially” state that the Senator was out of his depth.
Paul asked Fauci during the Tuesday hearing whether he wanted to retract his previous assertion to Congress that the National Institutes of Health had not funded “gain of function” research at the particular Chinese lab, and Fauci replied that he did not wish to do so.
Fauci commented as follows:
‘Senator Paul, I have never lied before the Congress, and I do not retract that statement. This paper that you’re referring to was judged by qualified staff up and down the chain as not being gain of function.’
Paul, as seems like a custom for him, promptly interrupted Fauci. Afterwards, Fauci added the following:
‘Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly. And I want to say that officially. You do not know what you are talking about.’
Subsequently, Paul alleged that Fauci was “trying to obscure responsibility for four million people dying around the world from a pandemic.” The Senator’s comments are flat-out ridiculous, and, in a way, dangerous. He’s apparently suggesting that Fauci was possibly in on or even responsible for the pandemic. These statements are not based in reality — it’s a delusional conspiracy theory that reveals the disturbing length to which Republicans like Paul are willing to go in order to try and support their political ambitions. Paul claimed that “all the evidence is pointing that [COVID-19] came from” a lab in Wuhan, China — which is simply false. What appears to be happening here is the application to another area of the delusional thinking that allows for a belief in systematic election-rigging. It’s a similar frame of mind in terms of the outright rejection of documented reality.
Fauci added as follows, addressing Paul:
‘I totally resent the lie that you are now propagating, Senator. Because, if you look at the viruses that were used in the experiments that were given in the annual reports that were published in the literature, it is molecularly impossible… to result in SARS-COV-2.’
Paul also claimed — while yelling, for some reason — that no one is actually claiming that the viruses to which Fauci referred caused the pandemic… although Paul had literally just referred to “responsibility” for the pandemic when discussing the topic. What exactly does he think was going on? Does he think there was some kind of covert research funded by the U.S. at that lab? It’s clear that the issue is not merely a theoretical question for the incompetent Senator, who’s seemingly misrepresenting his own remarks.
Watch the exchange below:
