Dr. Rand Paul vs. Anthony Fauci

Anthony Fauci is a lifelong bureaucrat who went to work for the federal government during the Nixon administration. To my knowledge, in the last forty or fifty years I have treated as many patients as Dr. Fauci has. Today, in a Senate committee hearing, he once again mixed it up with Dr. Rand Paul, an actual physician. The complete video is below, but first my interpretation.

Dr. Paul referred to a report that showed that research was carried on at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, with financial support from the National Institute of Health, that involved taking bat viruses that were transmitted only among animals and making them transmissible to humans. Senator Paul said that this is “gain of function” research, and asked Dr. Fauci whether he wanted to retract the testimony he gave several months ago to the effect that the federal government has never funded gain of function research at the WIV.

Fauci replied indignantly and denied that the research in question was “gain of function.” Senator Paul responded by reading from the NIH’s own definition of gain of function, which clearly includes the WIV research as described. Dr. Paul then suggested that Fauci was trying to deflect responsibility for an epidemic that killed millions of people.

Fauci, seeing an opening, tried to assume the high ground, arguing that the specific viruses that were addressed in the report Dr. Paul referenced could not have developed into COVID-19.

I have no idea whether this assertion is true or not, but Fauci dodged the original point: he evidently testified falsely, or incorrectly, several months ago when he said that NIH had never funded gain of function research at WIV. It seems clear, based on what we heard today, that they did. It is reasonable to infer that Fauci testified wrongly about this because he doesn’t want his agency, or the federal government, to be implicated in the Wuhan epidemic.

Whether the gain of function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology that was funded by the National Institute of Health culminated in the specific virus that became COVID-19 is unknown at this point. But it seems clear that Fauci testified incorrectly, and that there has been a concerted effort to cover up the U.S. government’s role in funding gain of function research involving bats and coronaviruses at the WIV.

Here is the tape. I will only add that Anthony Fauci is a politician who should have been put out to pasture long ago:

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