Leer en Español
In a heated Senate debate, Republican Congressman Rand Paul confronted again National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci about his role as health authority during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On this occasion, Paul held Fauci accountable for discrediting epidemiologists, spreading confusing information about the origin of COVID-19 and for his “arrogance” as an official spokesperson for the Biden administration.
Paul mentioned the “danger” of a government official, such as Fauci, claiming to “unilaterally represent science,” and said that such “arrogance” had led him to believe that he was capable of “using government resources to defame and destroy the reputations of other scientists who disagree with him.”
“Centralized planning, whether it’s economics or science, is risky because of the fallibility of the planner,” Paul told Fauci. “It wouldn’t be so catastrophic if the planner were simply a doctor in Peoria, then the errors would only affect the patients who chose that doctor, but when the planner is a government official like you, ruling by mandate, the errors are aggravated and become much more damaging.”
Paul also referred to an email exchange between Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins, former NIH director, in which Fauci allegedly conspired to create a “rapid and devastating public takedown” of three epidemiologists from Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford, and label them being on the “fringe.”
“This is not only antithetical to the scientific method; it’s cheap politics and it’s reprehensible, Dr. Fauci,” Paul continued asking him the following, “do you really think it’s appropriate to use your $420,000 salary to attack scientists who disagree with you?”
Fauci accused Paul of attacking him on “political motivations”
Instead of answering questions directly, Fauci attempted to defend himself by telling Paul that he was mistaken and had misunderstood the facts, “I think as usually you do, Senator, you’re distorting everything about me.”
Paul continued with his inquiry, alleging that Fauci had colluded with his colleagues to cover up the theory that COVID-19 was developed in a lab in Wuhan, China, with American funding and then leaked, causing the global pandemic.
After Fauci continued to try to deflect questions by claiming that Paul was “distorting everything,” the Republican senator rebuked him about his involvement in a Nature magazine article in which the aforementioned theory about the origin of COVID-19 is labeled as a “conspiracy theory.”
“Did you communicate with the five scientists who wrote the opinion piece in Nature where they described “oh, there’s no way this could come from a lab?” asked Paul to Fauci.
In response to that question, Fauci answered to having been in communication with Nature scientists and said that Paul continued to distort reality and accused him of “personal attacks” against himself.
In an effort to defend himself, Fauci claimed that Paul had been benefiting financially from his questioning, and argued that the attacks against him are “politically motivated.”
