Rand Paul: Gain-of-Function Hearing Showed Fauci Is Being Dishonest, We Need to Stop Sending China Things that Can Create Bioweapons

On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Sen. Rand Paul stated that in the Senate hearing on gain-of-function research, “we reconfirmed that Dr. Fauci is not being honest with us. Yes, the NIH funded gain-of-function research.” And the experts who testified before the committee concluded “that we should have an independent regulatory agency, and that it should be illegal to send DNA synthesizers to Communist China, it should be illegal to send humanized mice to China.” Paul also stated that he would like to get a Democrat to support legislation to have better oversight to prevent potential pandemics.

Paul said, “I know this is going to be shocking, but we learned that Dr. Fauci has been lying to us. The three scientists agreed that this was dangerous research. Two out of the three absolutely said it was absolutely gain-of-function. The third said it was dangerous research and should have gone before a committee. … I think we reconfirmed that Dr. Fauci is not being honest with us. Yes, the NIH funded gain-of-function research. Yes, it was dangerous, and yes, nobody looked over this. Nobody reviewed the research. And yes, a million people died. And there still seems to be a significant lack of curiosity on the part of Democrats.”

He added, “All three of our scientists said that we need something similar to what we do for nuclear research. So, if you have centrifuges at your house, Jesse, and you want to send them to Iran or to Russia, it’s against the law. So, all three of these scientists, independently, came up to the conclusion that we should have an independent regulatory agency, and that it should be illegal to send DNA synthesizers to Communist China, it should be illegal to send humanized mice to China. So, we’ve been the leaders in this research, but we shouldn’t willy-nilly be passing stuff around that could get in the hands of people who might want to create a bioterrorist weapon. So, I think we learned a lot today. And this should be the beginning. Now, if we’re in charge in November, I will continue these hearings, and I will try to get a Democrat on board, to say, why don’t we have [a] bipartisan bill that will create better oversight for…potential pandemics?”

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