EXCLUSIVE — Ron DeSantis: Fauci’s Purported Role with Gain of Function Research ‘Absolutely Needs to Be Fully Investigated’

JACKSONVILLE, Florida — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) believes Dr. Anthony Fauci’s purported role in “gain of function” research should “absolutely” be investigated and noted that the White House medical advisor often provides contradictory information, speaking to Breitbart News on Tuesday following his signing of a bill protecting girls’ and women’s sports.

When asked about Fauci’s frequent flip flops — from once dismissing the need for masks and later supporting double masking to pivoting on the origins of the Chinese coronavirus — DeSantis told Breitbart News that people will likely not look kindly on the way Fauci conducted himself throughout the pandemic.

“I think what people will do when the politics settle down and people can look back, they will look back and say, if you have a situation like this in the future, the way Fauci handled himself and did it, that’s what you should not do,” DeSantis said.

“The fact of the matter is, this guy is doing so many interviews. He’s indulging all these hypotheticals. He gives contradictory information. And when you’re messaging on public health, that is fatal to what you’re trying to accomplish. What you want to do is have one or two key things and you just keep driving that message home to the public and you don’t change, you don’t flip flop,” DeSantis continued.

“And instead, I think it’s been something where, you know, you can go back and look at what he says one month to the next and this and that, and the data is really not changing at this point,” he said.

While people were “hungry for the data” in the early months of the pandemic, DeSantis said the data has been “pretty clear on all these issues” since last summer.

“I mean, there’s not been anything that’s really changed since then, and yet you see the contradictory advice. This has been something, I think, people are going to look back on,” he explained.

DeSantis also emphasized the importance of a full investigation into Fauci’s purported role with “gain of function” research, specifically.

“I do think his role with this ‘gain of function’ research is something that absolutely needs to be fully investigated and vetted, and what U.S. money that he or any of his colleagues may have sent over to this Wuhan lab. And then obviously, we should validate the lab — that it [the virus] leaked from the lab,” he said, calling it the “most plausible explanation at this point.”

“You know, [it] probably was the most plausible last year too, although people like  Fauci were saying it’s natural. They did not have the information to say that it was natural. That was conjecture on their part,” he explained.

“Even to this day, they have not been able to do the linking to say that it was natural. So, leaking for the lab is, I think, the most reasonable explanation, but he really should be held accountable if he sent money over to that lab,” DeSantis added.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) head has admitted that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded the Wuhan lab, although he continues to deny “gain of function” support.

A Rasmussen Reports survey released last week found a majority of voters saying political considerations have influenced Fauci’s decisions and public statements on the Chinese coronavirus.

Fauci recently warned against claiming victory over the Chinese virus “prematurely,” asserting there to be a “ways to go.”