Senator Rand Paul and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, got into a heated exchange during a hearing on the origins of the Covid-19 virus.

Paul grilled Fauci about an NIH funded study that he says qualifies as gain-of-function research, the process of altering a pathogen to make it more transmissible in order to better predict emerging diseases. Fauci previously denied in previous Senate testimony that the NIH has directly funded the research at a lab in Wuhan, China that has come under intense scrutiny as a possible source of the virus.

Senator Paul asked Fauci if he would like to retract that statement from the May 11 testimony, “Fauci, as you are aware it is a crime to lie to Congress.”

Fauci, who oversees several NIH research programs as director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he wouldn’t retract his previous statement. “I have not lied before Congress. I have never lied. Certainly not before Congress. Case closed,” Fauci said.

Paul countered: “No one is saying those viruses caused the pandemic. What we’re alleging is that gain of function research was done in that lab and NIH funded it. You can’t get away from it, it meets your definition and you are obfuscating the truth.”

The Wuhan Institute of Virology has been under scrutiny since the beginning of the pandemic. The World Health Organization led the first phase of an investigation at the lab into the origins of Covid-19 and the possibility it could have leaked from that lab.

The WHO has called for further cooperation from the Chinese government in the investigation and said that the agency was denied the raw data necessary for a more complete investigation.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director of the WHO, said last week that the agency is asking “China to be transparent, open and cooperate, especially on the information, raw data that we asked for at the early days of the pandemic.” He also said that there was a “premature push” to rule out the possibility of a lab leak.

In May, the Senate passed legislation that prohibits U.S. agencies from funding the Wuhan lab, and lawmakers in the House of Representatives have a similar bill in the works.

The House Appropriations Committee last week approved an amendment to the the National Institutes of Health funding bill for 2022 that would ban funding to the lab.

(video credit: C-SPAN)
𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳(𝘴).*
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NOTE: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳(𝘴) / 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘳(𝘴) / 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳(𝘴) 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘧𝘴/𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴; 𝘐 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘮 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦.
𝘔𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘨𝘰𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘰 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘰𝘸𝘯, 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘥, 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴.

𝘍𝘈𝘐𝘙-𝘜𝘚𝘌 𝘊𝘖𝘗𝘠𝘙𝘐𝘎𝘏𝘛 𝘋𝘐𝘚𝘊𝘓𝘈𝘐𝘔𝘌𝘙
* 𝘊𝘰𝘱𝘺𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘜𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘚𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 107 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘱𝘺𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘈𝘤𝘵 1976, 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 "𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘶𝘴𝘦" 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘮, 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩. 𝘍𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘕𝘰𝘯-𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘪𝘵, 𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘱𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘢𝘷𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘶𝘴𝘦.