By Collin Rugg
On Tuesday during a hearing, Republican Senator Rand Paul unleashed on Dr. Anthony Fauci for his relations to the Wuhan, China, virology lab.
The clash was so bad that Fauci became visibly uncomfortable as he squirmed in his seat.
Check out what The Hill reported:
During a Senate hearing on the pandemic response, Paul alleged that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had been sending funding to the Wuhan lab, which then “juiced up” a virus that was originally found in bats to create a supervirus that can infect human cells. Paul pressed Fauci on the theory that the novel coronavirus was created in the Wuhan lab, and then somehow escaped, either because of an accident or because it was deliberately released.
“Dr. Fauci, do you still support funding of the NIH funding of the lab in Wuhan?” Paul asked.
“Senator Paul, with all due respect, you are entirely, entirely and completely incorrect,” Fauci deflected. “The NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain of function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
WATCH:
Check out what Fox News reported:
He said that the doctor in question does not conduct gain of function research, and if he does, it is in line with guidelines and conducted in North Carolina, not China. Paul pressed on, saying it is gain of function and that the Wuhan Institute was previously funded through a sub grant. Fauci replied that it would have been irresponsible of the U.S. not to have investigated the bat viruses and their serology in China, of which COVID was one. "Or perhaps it would be irresponsible to send it to the Chinese government that we may not be able to trust with this knowledge and with this incredibly dangerous viruses,” Paul interrupted, before accusing Fauci of supporting gain of function — a claim Fauci then called “incorrect.” Moving to suspicions that the COVID-19 virus originated after experimentation from the Wuhan Institute in 2019, Paul cited reporting that the top doctor in Wuhan wasn’t sure if it was a virus that had escaped the lab.
“Will you in front of this group categorically say that the COVID-19 virus could not have occurred by serial passage in a laboratory?” Paul questioned.
Fauci replied: “I do not have any accounting of what the Chinese may have done, and I’m fully in favor of any further investigation of what went on in China,” he said. “However, I will repeat again, the NIH and NIAID categorically has not funded gain of function research to be conducted in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
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Author: Collin Rugg
Source: Trending Politics: WATCH: Fauci Squirms After Rand Paul Asks Him DIRECTLY About Funding Wuhan Lab