Rand Paul Teases Coronavirus Investigation in 2023: It ‘Should Have Started in January 2020’

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) this week teased congressional investigations into the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, noting that the investigations should have started years ago but will finally take place in 2023.

“Fauci will go down in history for having made one of the worst medical judgments in modern medicine – the decision to fund dangerous research in totalitarian China. Thankfully, the investigation that should have started in January 2020 is now starting in January 2023,” Paul said, sharing a clip from a recent appearance on Hannity.

“He will go down in history as having made one of the worst medical judgments in the history of modern medicine,” Paul said of Fauci during the segment, deeming Fauci’s approval of dangerous gain-of-function research in totalitarian regimes such as China “probably one of the worst decisions.”

“I mean, millions of people died because of that decision. And so that wasn’t intentional. I don’t think Dr. Fauci intended to kill people. But he’s on record back to 2012 saying that should a pandemic occur, should a scientist be infected and spread it to the community, that it would be worth it– that the knowledge would be worth it,” Paul continued.

“The thing is, is that if you talk to scientists, other scientists, you’ll find many of them now say that this gain-of-function research that some people promised would gain knowledge and would give better ability to prevent pandemics, that doesn’t work that way, and they don’t anticipate that it will,” Paul said, noting that some believe such experiments “shouldn’t happen at all.”

“But we’re in the midst of this. There is really going to be investigation and [an] investigation that should have started in January of 2020 is now starting January 2023,” Paul promised:

Paul has long sparred with Fauci over the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding dangerous gain-of-function experiments at the Wuhan lab, which Fauci initially denied. The NIH, however, contradicted Fauci in a letter, which revealed that NIH awarded funds to EcoHealth Alliance, which was then subawarded to the Wuhan lab:

“You’re simply saying it doesn’t exist because you changed the definition on the NIH website,” Paul told Fauci during a hearing in November 2021 following Fauci attempting to change the definition of gain-of-function to protect himself.

“This is terrible and you’re completely trying to escape the idea that we should do something about trying to prevent a pandemic from leaking from a lab. And what you’ve done is change the definition on your website to try to cover your ass, basically,” Paul continued.

Notably, the a video recently unveiled by the White Coat Waste Project, a taxpayer watchdog group, shows that NIH officials also dismissed calls to stop dangerous gain-of-function research, asserting that concerned politicians were falling for “many of the conspiracy theories that swirled during the pandemic.”

In August, Paul warned that Fauci’s retirement would not  halt a “full-throated investigations” into the virus’s origins, and GOP leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) that same month promised that a Republican-led House would hold Fauci accountable: