Rand Paul: Wuhan Documents Show Fauci Lied In Testimony To Congress

Sen. Rand Paul says that newly public documents about the extent of U.S. funding of coronavirus research in Wuhan, China, show that Dr. Anthony Fauci lied during his previous testimony to Congress. 

Fauci has adamantly denied that the National Institutes of Health funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan, but on Tuesday, Paul blasted Fauci on Twitter, saying that the NIAID director had "lied again," Fox News reports.

"And I was right about his agency funding novel Coronavirus research at Wuhan," Paul said.

Paul’s tweet followed a story in The Intercept that revealed the U.S. government put $3.1 million into American health organization EcoHealth Alliance to back bat coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Fox News reports.

The report says almost $600,000 of that federal money was partially used by the WIV to find and alter bat coronaviruses that could jump to humans and infect them. Fox News reports the documents revealed that experimental research on mice genetically-engineered with human cell receptors was conducted at the Wuhan University Center for Animal Experiment, and not the WIV as previously thought.

"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," Rutgers University chemical biology professor Richard Ebright wrote in a Tuesday Twitter thread.

Paul accused Fauci of "lying" about gain-of-function research during a July hearing on the COVID-19 delta variant, OutKick previously reported.

"I have never lied before the Congress, and I do not retract that statement," Fauci said. He added that the research Paul referenced was "judged by qualified staff up and down the chain as not being gain of function."

Fauci added: "You do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly, and I want to say that officially."

Fox News reports that Paul's response was that the NIH's judgment "defines… away" work that essentially was gain-of-function research.

"You're dancing around this because you're trying to obscure responsibility," Paul added.