Cries to fire Fauci the ‘fibber’
Virus-lab $$ uproar
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas called revelations that Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared to have lied about “gain-of-function” research at a Chinese lab at the center of the coronavirus pandemic “one of the biggest scandals in Washington” and said the infectious-diseases expert should be investigated and prosecuted.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has sparred with Fauci (inset) over funding for the Wu- han Institute of Virology in several congressional hearings, said Fauci should be “immediately removed” because of his “poor judgment.”
“He should be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Cotton told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham Tuesday night.
“You know for 18 months he’s been saddling up his moral high horse and clucking his tongue at college kids who want to go celebrate a football game at an outdoor stadium on a nice fall day or parents who don’t want their kindergartners to have to wear masks their entire lives, telling you you have to wear three masks, when all along he’s been lying, not just in Congress, but to the American people about his role in funding the very reckless and dangerous research at a Chinese Communist lab that unleashed this pandemic on the world,” Cotton continued.
“It is a disgrace, and it’s time for Tony Fauci to be held accountable,” he said.
Ingraham asked how Cotton would rate the developments.
“One of the biggest scandals in Washington modern times, and they funded a laboratory that in all likelihood is the source of this once-in-a-century pandemic that has upended so many of our lives. Hundreds of thousands of people dead,” Cotton said.
Paul said Fauci must be removed now for violating the public trust.
“He has lied dozens of times. Usually he tells us that it’s for our own good. But, yes, he has dissembled, he has obfuscated . . . but he has definitely lied to the American public, and he should be held responsible,” Paul said on Fox News’ “Hannity” Tuesday.
A report by The Intercept, citing newly released documents, appears to contradict Fauci’s claims that the National Institutes of Health did not fund gain-of-function research at the lab.
Gain-of-function involves increasing the transmissibility of a virus to predict what new diseases could emerge and to develop vaccines and therapeutics to treat them.
The documents show a grant proposal that the EcoHealth Alliance filed with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the agency Fauci runs.
The grant proposal was for a project titled “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergency” and involved screening thousands of bat samples and people who worked with animals for novel coronaviruses, the report said.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology received $599,000 for bat-coronavirus research after the grant won $3.1 million in funding over a fiveyear period between 2014 and 2019. The Trump administration ended the funding in April 2020.