With more than five decades of service in the government, Dr. Anthony Fauci announced he would leave the federal government in December. But, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) stepped in and promised that Dr. Fauci would still need to testify before Congress. Fauci is one of the nation’s leading infectious disease experts and the victim of partisan attacks during the pandemic. “I will be leaving these positions in December of this year to pursue the next chapter of my career,” said Fauci, who angered many Americans with his management of the coronavirus pandemic. Fauci stressed that he will “not retire,” vowing to use his expertise to “advance science and public health.”
“Over the coming months, I will continue to put my full effort, passion and commitment into my current responsibilities, as well as help prepare the Institute for a leadership transition,” Fauci claimed. “NIH is served by some of the most talented scientists in the world, and I have no doubt that I am leaving this work in very capable hands.”
The senator Paul, who is also a medical doctor, stepped in. “Fauci’s resignation will not prevent a full-throated investigation into the origins of the pandemic,” Paul declared in a morning tweet. He has clashed several times with the director of the NIH over, among other things, the Wuhan lab. “He will be asked to testify under oath regarding any discussions he participated in concerning the lab leak,” continued the senator.
Fauci has in the past responded to threats from Senator Rand Paul to probe his handling of the pandemic by saying, ‘go ahead.’ “They are talking about things that are really bizarre, like crimes against democracy by shutting down the government. All I have ever done — and go back and look at everything I’ve ever done — was to recommend common sense, good, CDC-recommended public health policies that have saved millions of lives. If you wanna investigate me for that, go ahead,” Fauci was quoted as saying to CNN in July.
While the pandemic was raging, Fauci gained national attention for saying that he had to “stand up” to Donald Trump’s claims to benefit the public and “preserve my own integrity.” However, the claim that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) never funded research on gain-of-function was contradicted by several witnesses at a congressional hearing in early August, said Daily Wire.
“I was told directly to my face, and the quote is there from Dr. Fauci, they had never ever funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan,” Paul told The Daily Wire as he left the hearing. He referred to Fauci’s May 2021 assertion that “the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
“All three witnesses contradicted that,” Paul continued. “I think that’s a big deal because the first hearing we have had where scientists who actually look at this information [and], as informed as he is, completely disagree with him and say that the research was gain-of-function and the NIH paid for it.”