Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has repeatedly gone toe-to-toe with Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert, culminating recently when Paul and other conservative critics honed in on how the pandemic is being handled by Fauci and the Biden administration.
Paul and other conservative critics have focused their anger and distrust at Fauci, causing Fauci to express his frustration that this far into the pandemic Senator Paul still “accuses me of things that are completely untrue” and “kindles the crazies out there.”
Paul has repeatedly stated that Fauci lies about the pandemic and claimed that he tried to “take down” scientists who may disagree with him and his leadership.
Fauci angrily confronted Paul, angrily accusing him of using the pandemic for political gain, and did Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who accuses him of hiding financial disclosure forms.
Fauci continued, saying that false accusations by Paul are leading to death threats against him. The doctor has required increased security since 2020 because of threats against him and his family.
The Fauci-Paul feud overshadowed a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee which was designed to examine if the U.S. needs to make policy changes while battling the omicron variant.
A key complaint of both Democrats and Republicans has been the continuing lack of tests available to make it easier for people to test and stay home and not spread Covid if they have it.
During the hearing, committee ranking member Senator Richard Burr, R-NC, emphasized the lack of tests saying, “I just say to all of you right now, testing’s broken.”
Burr and other Democrat and Republican lawmakers thanked Fauci for his hard work fighting against the pandemic.
However, the cage match between Sen. Paul and Dr. Fauci continued, with the senator pressing Fauci on allegations that he is at minimum culpable in the creation of viruses through gain-of-function research.
After the hearing, Paul said the probability of “90 to 10” that the Covid-19 virus originated in Wuhan, China, in a laboratory and was engineered by gain-of-function research partially funded by the United States, despite Fauci’s denials.
“[Fauci] funded the lab,” said Paul. “He tried to obscure the idea that he was giving money to the lab and then he steadfastly, for two years, said it wasn’t gain of function, that they weren’t taking viruses that don’t exist in nature, creating them and creating viruses that are so dangerous that they could actually wipe out a portion of humanity.”
Fauci blames conservatives for threats
Fauci pointed out that a man was arrested recently for speeding in Iowa. The California man told a sheriff’s deputy that he was on his way to the U.S. capital to kill a list of people in power.
The man, Kuachua Brillion Xiong of Sacramento, had an AR-15 style rifle, body armor and ammunition in the car. Fauci was included on the kill list.
Fauci complained that Paul has website has a “fire Dr. Fauci” page and asks for political contributions ranging from $5 to $100. He accused Paul of using the pandemic “for your political gain.”
