Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) told the Washington Examiner that he plans to hold former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci accountable for his potential involvement in gain-of-function research.
Gain-of-function research is the genetic manipulation of an organism where it gains or loses an ability. These alterations may be made naturally or through experimentation.
Paul, the incoming chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee for the Trump administration, told the publication that he intends to issue subpoenas for documents relating to the COVID-19 virus and its research.
“They have resisted for three years, and I’m not going to wait around another year to see if they start responding,” he said.
“What I’m looking for now is the actual deliberations, the paperwork, the discussion over whether or not it was or was not gain-of-function. I think there is something to be had there,” Paul added. “I don’t think they would have resisted me for three years if they actually didn’t have something to hide. It wouldn’t make sense.”
In 2021, Fauci claimed during his Senate testimony that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) “has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
Years after Fauci made the claim, he told the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic that he was referring to the “operative definition” of gain-of-function, whereas Paul was referring to the generic use of the term.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Principal Deputy Director Lawrence Tabak later admitted that taxpayer funds went to gain-of-function research in China’s Institute of Virology.
Republican Representative Debbie Lesko (AZ) asked during a House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic hearing, “Did NIH fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through EcoHealth [Alliance]?”
“It depends on your definition of gain-of-function research,” Tabak said. “If you’re speaking about the generic term, yes, we did.” He explained that the “generic term” of gain-of-function refers to “research that goes on in many, many labs around the country. It is not regulated. And the reason it’s not regulated is it poses no threat or harm to anybody.”
Paul told political commentator Glenn Beck earlier this month that he has sent “referrals, criminal referrals, on Anthony Fauci twice to the Department of Justice without really a response. Merrick Garland hasn’t done his job; he’s probably been the most partisan attorney general we’ve ever had. I will send those referrals again if they preemptively pardon Anthony Fauci.”
“It will seal his fate as the architect, author, and godfather of the pandemic,” Paul stated. “He’s the one that funded it; he’s the one that funded the research in Wuhan; he’s the one that allowed the research not to be scrutinized.”
