Sen. Rand Paul blasts Fauci for saying, 'I really can't see something that I would do completely over'

Fauci's retirement won't provide him with immunity to a congressional investigation upon Republicans taking the House in January. It certainly won't shield him from Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul's continued denunciations.

Paul minced no words in conversation with Fox News' Jesse Watters on Thursday, claiming Dr. Anthony Fauci inadvertently got millions of people killed with the risky research he helped secure funding for while head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

No do-overs

Fauci made clear in a recent Washington Post "Exit" interview that he has no regrets.

"You know I really can't see something that I would do completely over," he told the Post.

Concerning these remarks, Sen. Rand Paul said on "Jesse Watters Primetime" that "likely there is no public health figure that has made a greater error in judgement than Dr. Fauci."

"The error in judgment was to fund gain-of-function research in a totalitarian country — fund research that allowed them to create super viruses that, in all likelihood, accidentally leaked into the public and caused seven million people to die," said Paul.

Seeking to contextualize the damage he believes Fauci to have done, Paul suggested, "This is right up there with decisions, some of them malevolent or military, to kill millions of people."

Paul previously elaborated on some of what Fauci allegedly did wrong in an opinion piece, claiming he had the "receipts" evidencing Fauci's "funding of gain-of-function research in China."

"The agency Dr. Fauci heads, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), awarded a grant (Project Number 1R01AI110964-01) with a subcontract to the Wuhan Lab of Virology, where researchers combined a gene from one SARS-related coronavirus with the genetic information of another SARS-related coronavirus and constructed new coronaviruses that infected human cells," wrote Paul.

"That is gain-of-function, and plenty of scientists have called it as such. Although the exact origin of SARS-CoV-2 remains unknown, its unique structure, specifically its furin cleavage site, which has not been found in natural coronaviruses, suggests it may have been developed through dangerous research of this kind," the senator added.

Paul indicated that extra to helping to secure funding for dangerous coronavirus experiments that may have kicked off a global pandemic, Fauci worked ardently to silence critics and "bury the lab-leak theory."

According to Paul, Fauci's censorious and self-aggrandizing approach demonstrated that he, along with former NIH Director Francis Collins, prioritized "dangerous gain-of-function research at a Chinese lab and their own behinds over the health and safety of the American people."

Concerning the COVID-19 death toll and Fauci's apparent lack of remorse, Paul told Watters, "It goes to judgment. Talk about errors, you think he might apologize to the world ... to support that kind of research, then look the other way and say, 'Nothing to see here,' and to cover it up."

'Caught him red-handed'

Paul, who publicly called on Fauci to step down over a year ago, made clear in his Thursday interview with Watters that despite the outgoing NIAID director "covering his tracks" over the past two years, "we've caught him red-handed and he won't get away."

Fauci has denied funding gain-of-function research, but in a Senate hearing convened by Paul earlier this year, Rutgers University molecular biologist Dr. Richard Ebright testified that "the statements made on repeated occasions to the public, to the press, and to policymakers by the NIAID director, Dr. Fauci, have been untruthful. I do not understand why those statements are being made, because they are demonstrably false."

Concerning Fauci's funding of dangerous research in Chinese labs of dubious security and hygiene, Paul suggested that "historically, he will be remembered for one of the worst judgments in the history of modern medicine."

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) stated in August that House Republicans may look into whether "Dr. Fauci concealed anything from government officials in order to shield the NIH’s cozy relationship with EcoHealth Alliance, a grantee that awarded taxpayer funds to the Wuhan lab to conduct dangerous research on bat coronaviruses," noting the "American people deserve transparency and accountability."

Last week, Fauci told reporters that "if there are oversight hearings I absolutely will cooperate fully and testify before the Congress. ... I have no trouble testifying — we can defend and explain everything that we've said."

Sen Rand Paul Fauci will be remembered for one of the worst judgments in modern medicine #new #topyoutu.be