Senator Rand Paul attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci for political points again in yet another COVID-19 hearing, but this time the doctor really lost it on the senator, who has been smearing him relentlessly since the start of the pandemic, trying to paint him as dishonest because he’s changed his advice to the public based on new information. Fauci has for over a year mostly been able to maintain his composure in the face of political bloviating, but Tuesday morning he showed just how done he is with the sideshow.
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After Paul once again accused him of lying to Congress, this time on the topic of the National Institutes of Health allegedly funding “gain-of-function” research in Wuhan, Fauci turned the tables on him.
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“Senator Paul, I have never lied before the Congress and I do not retract that statement,” Fauci said. “This paper that you are referring to was judged by qualified staff up and down the chain as not being gain-of-function.”
Paul attempted to interrupt to clarify that what they were discussing was indeed not “gain-of-function” research, which refers to specific acts of increasing the transmission potential of a virus in order to better study it, to which Fauci gave a straightforward answer: “That is correct.”
“And, Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly,” Fauci continued. “And I want to say that officially: You do not know what you are talking about.”
Unfortunately for everyone in the room, Rand Paul continued talking, stumbling over the words “transmissibility” and “animals” to the clear embarrassment of the people behind him, accusing Fauci of “trying to obscure responsibility for four million people dying around the world from a pandemic.” This is one of the few times a U.S. Republican has acknowledged the real death toll of the pandemic, though that number is likely to be considerably higher.
The hearing chair has to order Paul to let Fauci answer the question as he makes the assertion that the single NIH grant to a Wuhan scientist was ultimately responsible for the entire pandemic, and the doctor certainly had an answer.
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“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],” said Fauci before being interrupted again by Paul, who was again told his time was up by the chair. “You are implying that what we did was responsible for the deaths of individuals. I totally resent that and if anyone is lying here, senator, it is you.”
The shot of Paul taking a drink of water at the end somehow manages to really underscore the moment. Who said C-SPAN was boring TV? Fauci’s fans are certainly entertained.
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*First Published: July 20, 2021, 10:23 am
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