Rand Paul asks NIH to preserve all of Dr. Anthony Fauci's documents for upcoming GOP oversight



Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Tuesday asked the National Institutes of Health to preserve all of outgoing White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci's documents and communications.

In a letter addressed to acting NIH director Dr. Lawrence Tabak, Paul requested that all of Fauci's documents be preserved for future congressional oversight investigations, placing special emphasis on communications related to coronavirus research funded by Fauci's agency.

The letter was sent after Fauci announced on Monday he would step down from his role as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in December.

"I formally request you ensure the preservation of all documents and communications within Dr. Fauci's posession related to his tenure at the National Institutes of Health," Paul wrote. "This information is critical to ensure that Congress has access to information necessary to conduct proper oversight regarding events that took place during Dr. Fauci's tenure within the agency."

\u201cSen. Rand Paul just notified NIH to preserve all of Anthony Fauci's communications.\n\n"The American people deserve transparency and accountability from the NIH regarding the COVID-19 pandemic regardless of Dr. Fauci\u2019s future employment plans." https://t.co/D0YhByNntH\u201d
— Paul D. Thacker (@Paul D. Thacker) 1661282840

Paul requested that all records, email, electronic documents, and data "created or shared with Dr. Fauci" during his more than three-decade tenure at the agency be preserved. The Kentucky lawmaker emphasized that NIH should preserve documents related to federal funding for coronavirus research, which would include grants given EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit that sub-awarded NIH funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China to study bat coronaviruses.

"The American people deserve transparency and accountability from the NIH regarding the COVID-19 pandemic regardless of Dr. Fauci's future employment plans," Paul wrote.

EcoHealth's relationship with the Wuhan lab has been the subject of intense scrutiny by Paul and others who have alleged that gain-of-function research experiments conducted in China may be linked to the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. The senator has repeatedly confronted Fauci on gain-of-function research in highly publicized congressional hearings — during which Fauci has denied any wrongdoing and accused Paul of "distorting" facts to attack scientists.

Fauci, who announced on Monday he would leave the government but is not retiring, has served as the White House's chief spokesman for the COVID-19 pandemic over the last two years.

Republican lawmakers have suggested that the timing of Fauci's departure is convenient, given that the GOP is widely expected to retake at least the House of Representatives in November's midterm elections and will hold oversight hearings on Fauci's tenure should they indeed regain power.

Paul's demand that NIH preserve Fauci's records is but the latest indication that regardless of the outcome of the election, GOP lawmakers will attempt to hold Fauci accountable for his handling of the pandemic.

Rand Paul says new documents prove Fauci lied before Congress: 'He needs to be held accountable'



Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said that new documents bolster his accusations that Dr. Anthony Fauci lied to Congress about funding gain-of-function viral research in China.

Fauci, the nation's leading epidemiologist, famously denied the allegation by Paul and others that the National Institutes of Health funded the controversial research that might have led to the global pandemic, yelling, "You don't know what you're talking about!"

Newly published documents obtained by The Intercept appeared to show that Fauci was less than truthful about the claims.

"I have already asked the DOJ to review Fauci's testimony for lying to Congress. This report should make it abundantly clear that he needs to be held accountable," tweeted Paul in reference to the revelations.

Paul had famously butted heads with Fauci over the issue of gain-of-function funding during his testimony before the Senate Health Committee in July.

When asked Fauci to retract his comments denying the funding, Fauci argued that the program he oversaw did not technically qualify as gain-of-function.

"Sen. Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly, and I want to say that officially," said Fauci at the time. "You do not know what you are talking about."

The new documents obtained by The Intercept through a Freedom of Information Act request show that the Wuhan University Center for Animal Experiment was awarded a grant from Fauci's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases through EcoHealth Alliance.

A summary of the research from The Intercept matches the description of gain-of-function:

The bat coronavirus grant provided the EcoHealth Alliance with a total of $3.1 million, including $599,000 that the Wuhan Institute of Virology used in part to identify and alter bat coronaviruses likely to infect humans. Even before the pandemic, many scientists were concerned about the potential dangers associated with such experiments. The grant proposal acknowledges some of those dangers: "Fieldwork involves the highest risk of exposure to SARS or other CoVs, while working in caves with high bat density overhead and the potential for fecal dust to be inhaled."

Dr. Richard Ebright, a Rutgers University molecular biologist, reviewed the documents and concluded that Fauci lied about the research.

"The documents make it clear that assertions by the NIH Director, Francis Collins, and the NIAID Director, Anthony Fauci, that the NIH did not support gain-of-function research or potential pandemic pathogen enhancement at WIV are untruthful," Ebright said.

Paul had already criminally previously referred Fauci in July to the Department of Justice for a possible prosecution.

"Surprise surprise - Fauci lied again," Paul tweeted earlier Tuesday. "And I was right about his agency funding novel Coronavirus research at Wuhan."

Here's more about the accusations against Fauci:

Kilmeade: It appears Anthony Fauci lied under oathwww.youtube.com

Sen. Rand Paul says Fauci should quit 'fearmongering' on TV, slams CDC suggestion Michigan should lock down again



Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) wants top White House health adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci to "voluntarily remove himself" from national TV programs for "fearmongering" about COVID-19 vaccines, the senator said Tuesday.

"Dr. Fauci should be voluntarily removed from TV because what he says is such a disservice and such fear-mongering and almost all of what he says isn't even matched by the science of his own institute," Paul told Fox Business host Neil Cavuto.

Paul, who has had numerous public disagreements with Fauci over masking and social distancing requirements for people who have been vaccinated or have already recovered from COVID-19, complained that Fauci and other White House health officials were not sharing good news about viral immunity with the American people.

"Some vaccines like smallpox confer immunity lifelong. Some infections like the Spanish Flu, the influenza that was gotten in 1918, they found people with immunity 90 years later. So, there are people that have lifelong immunity. With SARS, which is another coronavirus that came around in about 2004, they found that those people still have immunity 15, 17 years later," explained Paul, who is a physician.

For those like Paul himself who have already contracted COVID-19, "there's a great deal of evidence that you will still have immunity," he argued. He pointed out that cases of reinfection are rare and that there is no evidence of widespread hospitalizations or deaths from COVID-19 reinfection.

"The good news is that even if you've got infected with COVID after you've been vaccinated, you have some immunity, you have partial immunity and it lessens the degree or significance of the disease," Paul said. "Almost everything out there is good news."

.@RandPaul: “Dr. Fauci should be voluntarily removed from TV because what he says is such a disservice and such fea… https://t.co/n64b8QrXVb
— Tom Elliott (@Tom Elliott)1618337532.0

Fauci and other health experts disagree with Sen. Paul. They point out that researchers have not definitively shown the various vaccines will protect against new variants of COVID-19, such as the U.K. variant, and they advise that people continue to practice social distancing and mask-wearing.

As coronavirus cases spike in some parts of the country, notably Michigan, Biden administration officials are even advising states to turn back the clock to spring 2020 and reimpose lockdown policies to slow the spread of the virus. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said Monday that Michigan, which is currently experiencing the highest rate of new infections, needs to close businesses and shut down the state to slow the spread.

Paul blasted lockdowns as anti-science.

"It doesn't obey the science. There is no scientific evidence that the lockdowns in Michigan have done anything, or in California. In fact, the daily incidents of the disease in the last two months has been about almost one and a half times greater in California than it has been in Florida. The death rate is lower in Florida. So there is no real correlation between economic lockdowns, mask mandates, or any of this," he said.

Then he added: "It is television malpractice for these TV doctors to come on and say the mask is so much more important than the vaccine. It's so much more of an immediate benefit. No, it is not. Most of the people who are getting the disease have been wearing masks. The vaccine work. Almost nobody that's been vaccinated has been hospitalized or died, almost no one."