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Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) announced the first public hearing on gain-of-function research aimed at identifying the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Throughout this pandemic, Dr. Rand Paul has held government officials accountable for the status of efforts being made to combat COVID-19 and the origins of this virus that has killed more than 6 million people worldwide. “It’s been a more than a year-long process to finally get Democrats in Congress to agree to a hearing,” Paul told Fox News Digital. It’s also the first congressional hearing on acquisition research, and it should have been done long ago, from expert witnesses at this very important hearing.”
The hearings scheduled for Wednesday come a week after Kentucky senators tried to pass an amendment to the CHIPS Plus Act that would bar U.S. funding for gain-of-function research in China, Democrats said. Despite opposition to the bill, an earlier version of the bill passed unanimously last year.
In his Senate address last week, Paul claimed there was significant evidence that the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic could be traced back to a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
Rand Paul sends message to Fauci: Must testify under oath if Republicans win
“Gain-of-function studies increase the severity or transmissibility of existing viruses that can infect humans,” Paul said. “The danger is so serious that from 2014 to 2017 the National Institutes of Health suspended funding for all gain-of-function projects… It’s a reminder that dangerous research done in a country is simply too risky to be funded.”
Paul wrote last week to Acting Director of the National Institutes of Health Lawrence A. Tabak to be more transparent about the origins of COVID-19, arguing that the NIH has “repeatedly ignored its responsibilities” under liberalism. I requested the agency to have sex. information law.
“Of particular concern is the NIH’s recent admission in court that it withheld some employee-to-employee emails, which was ‘used out of context and linked to the origins of the coronavirus pandemic’. ‘because it could help amplify the already prevalent misinformation about it,” Paul said in a letter. “This suggests that the NIH is censoring information it releases to the public about the origins of the pandemic.”
Paul has had several clashes with public health officials throughout the pandemic, including several confrontations with Dr. Anthony Fauci, now director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to President Biden. .
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Most recently, Paul told Fox News that Fauci would be forced to testify under oath regarding the pandemic if Republicans took control of Congress after the midterm elections.
“If he holds public office, we will summon him,” Paul said. “He must appear in court and testify under oath. If the Republicans take charge of the House or the Senate or both, he must testify under oath because a million Americans have died. No. Are you trying to cover up your links to Chinese labs?”