OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Sen. Rand Paul issued a brutal statement to Anthony Fauci, the country’s former lead immunologist who declared recently he had no regrets about the way he handled the pandemic.
During an interview, Fauci, who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since Ronald Reagan’s first term in the early 1980s, was asked if there was anything he would do differently regarding the COVID-19 outbreak.
“I’m the first to admit I’m far from perfect, but when you say do over, you know, I really can’t see something that I would do completely over,” Fauci said.
Paul, a Kentucky Republican, was not happy with Fauci’s remark.
“Likely there is no public figure, or public health figure, that has made a greater error in judgment than Dr. Fauci. The error in judgment was to fund gain-of-function research in a totalitarian country — fund research that allowed them to create super viruses that, in all likelihood, accidentally leaked into the public and caused seven million people to die,” Paul said.
“Think about it. This is right up there with decisions, some of them malevolent or military, to kill millions of people,” Paul said. “This is accidental, but it goes to judgment.”
“Talk about errors. You think he might apologize to the world for funding research that allowed superviruses to be created in a lab – a lab that was not properly outfitted for safety, that people were already reporting was dangerous – to support that kind of research, and then to look the other way and say, ‘Nothing to see here,’ and to cover it up,” Paul noted.
“For the last two years, he’s been covering his tracks, but we’ve caught him red-handed, and he won’t get away,” the GOP senator said.
“Historically, he will be remembered for one of the worst judgments in the history of modern medicine,” he said, going on to say he planned to try and hold Fauci “accountable” for funding the research.
“I will not only hold Dr. Fauci accountable, but we will also finally investigate why your tax dollars were sent to fund dangerous research in Wuhan,” he said.
Alabama GOP Rep. Jerry Carl, who previously suggested that Fauci may have profited financially from his COVID-19 guidance, said Republicans’ investigation into Fauci will “not go by the wayside.”
At the time, Carl said, “My business side of my brain tells me there is more to this,” he said. “My common sense is it’s going to be well-covered up, I should say. Us getting an answer is not necessarily expected. But with that said — we have so many bureaucrats that run so much of the government. I think it is a fine opportunity for us as taxpayers to ask our bureaucrats, ‘Did you make money off of this?'”
Carl said this week that those efforts on Fauci were still on House Republicans’ radar.”It’s virtually impossible to get access to his private funds and how he invests,” Carl said. “I was the first one to bring up the fact, and I’ll never forget it, riding down Airport Boulevard, that there is a financial interest here. You know, that’s what this is about a financial interest. It’s not going by the wayside. There’s so much flying around up here. That was my biggest fear in another conversation I had with you — I don’t want to chase too many rabbits. I want to focus on three or four. Let’s get those accomplished and move on. But it seems to be a totally different scenario up here. Everything is being investigated. Everything is being looked at. And the American public wants it that way. I’m not saying that.”
“But it’s hard. I’ve got three committee meetings going at the same time. I’m literally — thank God they’re all on one hall — and I’m running from door to door for about three hours trying to make these committee meetings because there is just so much going on,” he added. “We had 34 committee meetings — not me personally — held in one day, one day. We’re looking into stuff. We’re talking about stuff.”
