Video: Senator Rand Paul Grills Fauci Over Gain-of-Function Research, Urges Him to Resign
© REUTERS / ELIZABETH FRANTZ
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The US President's Chief Medical Adviser Anthony Fauci has landed in hot water recently over the National Institutes of Health's gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China, and particularly over allegations that Fauci participated in cruel experiments on puppies paid for by taxpayer dollars.
Republican Senator Rand Paul lambasted director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Anthony Fauci during a hearing on Thursday, calling for his resignation and claiming that the presidential chief medical adviser had failed to accept responsibility for taking part in gain-of-function research of coronaviruses at the Wuhan laboratory.
"Until you accept responsibility, we're not going to get anywhere close to trying to prevent another lab leak of this dangerous sort of experiment. You won't admit that it's dangerous, and for that lack of judgment, I think it's time that you resign", Paul said.
The Republican senator insisted that "the preponderance of evidence" points to a laboratory origin of coronavirus - something that Fauci did not agree with, asserting that Paul's statements were an “egregious misrepresentation”, and dismissed the lab leak theory of the coronavirus' origin.
Paul, however, remained adamant that Fauci had changed the definition on his website "to try to cover [his] a** basically".
WATCH: Sen. Rand Paul blasts Dr. Fauci: "The preponderance of evidence now points toward this coming from a lab and what you've done is change the definition on your website to try to cover your a** basically." pic.twitter.com/OxzB87u6o4
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) November 4, 2021
Rand Paul grilling Dr Fauci: "Until you accept responsibility, we're not going to get anywhere close to trying to prevent another lab leak of this dangerous sort of experiment. You won't admit that it's dangerous, and for that lack of judgment, I think it's time that you resign." pic.twitter.com/L1GNw9Nu9S
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) November 4, 2021
The origin of the coronavirus is something that US intelligence officials are still debating. Last month, the National Intelligence Council stated that the Intelligence Community "remains divided on the most likely origin” of the disease. The report ruled out the possibility that the Chinese government had developed COVID-19 as a biological weapon and noted that Beijing “probably did not have foreknowledge” before the 2019 outbreak.
Fauci sided with those who thought the coronavirus had a natural origin.
“Even though we leave open all possibilities, it’s much more likely that this was a natural occurrence”, Fauci said.
1 November 2021, 18:14 GMT
Paul argued that "no one is alleging that the published viruses by the Chinese are Covid", rather pointing out that "this was [a] risky type of research".
"Gain of function research, it was risky to share this with the Chinese, and that Covid may have been created from a not yet revealed virus", the Senator said.
Fending off accusations of having changed the definition of gain-of-function research on the NIH's website, Fauci said that the definition had been in development for over two years before it was formalised by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in January of 2017.
However, the issue of the NIH's participation in gain-of-function research is not the only thing that has stirred controversy around the US president's chief medical adviser. Recently, Fauci has been facing accusations of funding gruesome experiments on beagle puppies, which were said to have been deliberately infected with parasites that were "eating them alive".
While the NIH has denied that Fauci participated in the apparent cruel experiments, he has still found himself under fire, with critics even launching the hashtag #BeagleGate, calling for Fauci's resignation or even arrest.
25 October 2021, 12:19 GMT
Aside from Senator Paul, among those slamming Fauci over his alleged participation in "unethical" experiments are Donald Trump Jr, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and Senators Marco Rubio, Susan Collins, Tom Cotton, and many others.
