The fireworks flew on Capital Hill Tuesday, when Kentucky Senator Rand Paul once again squared-off with a defiant Dr. Anthony Fauci. The two had battled in a previous encounter concerning both the source of the Chinese virus and Fauci’s claim that his organization the National Institutes of Health (NIH) never funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Paul’s no-nonsense aggressive presentation at the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions hearing caught the flip-flopping chief medical adviser for the Biden administration flat-footed. When Paul asked the 80-year old healthcare government bureaucrat if he wanted to retract his May 11th testimony in witch he denied funding (through NIH) gain-of-function research at the Chinese lab.
Visibly shaken by Paul’s forceful interrogation, Fauci fired back, “you do not know what you are talking about.”
Dr. Fauci: "Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly. And I want to say that officially, you do not know what you are talking about." pic.twitter.com/ya6U1o7EGW
— The Hill (@thehill) July 20, 2021
However, undaunted by Fauci’s weak attempt to deflect Paul continued his interrogation, “Dr. Fauci, as you are aware it is a crime to lie to Congress.”
Paul continued, “And yet, gain-of-function research was done entirely in the Wuhan Institute … and was funded by the NIH,” Paul said, citing Wuhan Virology paper entitled, “Discovery of a Rich Gene Pool of Bat SARS-Related Corona-viruses.”
Adding, “In this paper … she credits the NIH and lists the actual number of the grant that she was given by the NIH. In this paper, she took two bat corona-virus genes, spiked genes, and combined them with a SARS-related backbone to create new viruses that are not found in nature.”
That devastating piece of information for those who’ve lost love ones to the virus, must have been a gut-wrenching moment, knowing that American tax payer dollars helped fund the pandemic that eventually killed their love ones.
The 58-year old physician turned politician also introduced Dr. Richard H. Ebright, a molecular biologist from Rutgers University, who described the research in Wuhan as matching the “definition of gain of function research done entirely in Wuhan for which there was supposed to be a federal pause.”
Paul once again asked Fauci, “Dr. Fauci knowing that it is a crime to lie to Congress, do you wish to retract your statement of May 11th where you claimed that the NIH never funded gain of function research in Wuhan?”
Sen. @RandPaul: Knowing that it is a crime to lie to Congress, do you wish to retract your statement of May 11th where you claimed that the NIH never funded gain of function research in Wuhan?
— CSPAN (@cspan) July 21, 2021
Dr. Fauci: I have never lied before the Congress and I do not retract that statement. pic.twitter.com/RbljuOvjMk
Fauci still defiant responded, “Senator Paul, I have never lied before the Congress and I do not retract that statement. This paper that you were referring to was judged by qualified staff up and down the chain as not being gain of function — let me finish!” he said as Paul interjected.
“You take an animal virus and you increase this transmissibility to humans, you’re saying that’s not gain of function?” Paul asked.
Fauci visibly annoyed fires back, “Yeah that is correct, and Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly. And I want to say that officially. You do not know what you are talking about,” Paul interrupts Fauci in mid-sentence.
“This is your definition that you guys wrote. It says that scientific research that increases the transmissibility among animals is gain of function. They took animal viruses that only occur in animals and they increase their transmissibility to humans. How you can say that is not gain of function?”
There’s little doubt that the investigation will continue by Republicans attempting to unravel Fauci’s role concerning COVID-19 along with the Chinese cover-up.
Moreover, according to a new book titled “Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration’s Response to the Pandemic That Changed History,” Fauci’s fingerprints are all over this growing scandal.
The authors provide a behind-the-scene account on how Fauci and his colleagues at NIH attempted to mislead the Trump White House concerning the origin of the pandemic, after the president ordered Fauci to cut grant money to NIH.
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