Dr. Anthony Fauci has retired as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, but GOP Sen. Rand Paul continues to accuse him of mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic and making the “worst decision ever made by a public health official in the history of time.”
In an interview this weekend on WABC 770 AM’s “The Cats Roundtable,” Paul called for Fauci to go to prison for his actions.
He holds Fauci responsible for funding research at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology that may have triggered the outbreak.
“For his dishonesty, frankly, he should go to prison,” Paul told WABC host John Catsimatidis. “Do you think the scientific knowledge that was gained from this research was worth the deaths of 20 million people?”
The Government Accountability Office issued a report in June 2023 stating that the NIH had contributed over $1.4 million to Chinese research institutions, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology, despite serious biosafety concerns.
Fauci had previously denied funding risky gain-of-function research at the lab.
Fauci, the White House’s medical adviser during the pandemic, last week testified privately before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic and faced criticism for his lack of recall regarding decisions or circumstances during the early days of the outbreak.
Committee Chairman Rep. Brad Wenstrup expressed surprise at Fauci’s frequent lack of recall.
Paul criticized Fauci for approving research at the Wuhan lab without reading it and called it the worst decision ever made by a public health official. He also poked fun at Fauci’s claim that he approved all the research at the lab but didn’t read it.
The House subcommittee is investigating Fauci’s potential influence over the US intelligence community regarding the origin of the pandemic. A whistleblower alleged that Fauci visited CIA headquarters to “influence” analysts who later were unable to determine the pandemic’s origin.
