Fauci: "I Just Don't Understand What the Problem is with" Rand Paul

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Last updated on May 15th, 2021 at 07:46 pm

In an appearance on “CBS This Morning,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top expert on infectious diseases,” said he doesn’t “understand” Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who continued to entertain conspiracy theories about the origins of Covid-19 during a hearing on the pandemic response.

“You know, Gayle,” Fauci told host Gayle King, “I just don’t want to get into that tit-for-tat. I just don’t understand what the problem is with him.”

He added: “Well I’m just gonna do my job and he can do what he wants to do and we’ll see what happens.”

The @CDCgov has cleared the way for 12 to 15 year olds to get Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, which means adolescents will be able to get the shot nationwide.

Dr. Anthony Fauci joins us now to explain. pic.twitter.com/VLkNV0Rd67

— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) May 13, 2021

During Tuesday’s hearing, Paul declared that the National Institutes of Health sent funding to a lab in Wuhan, China that supercharged a virus initially found in bats.

Sen. Paul, with all due respect, you are entirely, entirely and completely incorrect,” Fauci told him at the time. “The NIH has not ever, and does not now, fund ‘gain of function research’ in the Wuhan Institute.”

“Let me explain to you why that was done, the SARS COV-1 originated in bats in China. It would have been irresponsible of us if we did not investigate the bat viruses and the serology to see who might have been infected,” Fauci continued. “I do not have any accounting of what the Chinese may have done, and I’m fully in favor of any further investigation of what went on in China. However, I will repeat again, the NIH and NIAID categorically has not funded gain of function research to be conducted in the Wuhan Institute.”

"We have not funded gain of function research on this virus in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. No matter how many times you say it, it didn't happen." — Fauci to Rand Paul pic.twitter.com/f0kMzGeP1B

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 11, 2021

Claims that Covid-19 originated in a Wuhan lab have been a popular conspiracy theory within right-wing circles. There is no evidence that the virus is man-made, according to an Associated Press fact check.