Fauci blasting ‘dangerous criticism’ sets off Rand Paul

US chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci claimed that his critics are targeting science by questioning his policies, saying it’s “dangerous.” Calling it “hubris,” Sen. Rand Paul doubled down on criticizing Fauci’s Covid-19 response.

Paul (R-Kentucky), Fauci’s arch-nemesis in the Senate, and other lawmakers who have questioned the veracity of his claims are “really criticizing science,” rather than the official himself, the White House medical adviser insisted during a recent interview with CBS’s Face the Nation. He also dismissed the senators’ opposition as “theater,” “nonsense” and “noise.”

“Anybody who’s looking at this carefully realizes that there’s a distinct anti-science flavor to this, so if they get up and criticize science, nobody’s going to know what they’re talking about,” Fauci declared, appearing to insist that those targeting him personally were only doing so because they were afraid to face down science itself. 

“If they get up there and really aim their bullets at Tony Fauci, well people can recognize that there’s a person there, so it’s easy to criticize,” the director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases argued.

They’re really criticizing science because I represent science. That’s dangerous.

Responding on Twitter, Paul called out what he dubbed the “hubris” of Fauci’s comment, and claimed that Fauci has “worked so hard to ignore the science of natural immunity.”

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Fauci DID fund Wuhan virus experiments, but officials insist virus involved ‘could not have been’ cause of Covid-19 pandemic

A trained ophthalmologist, Paul has frequently clashed with Fauci over the NIAID chief’s insistence that he represents the scientific establishment – despite apparently changing his public opinions more than once about the way the Covid-19 pandemic should be handled. The senator has repeatedly attacked Fauci on his alleged involvement in the controversial gain-of-function research of viruses such as SARS-CoV-2.

Paul’s Senate colleague Ted Cruz (R-Texas) backed up Paul on Twitter, noting that Fauci’s story regarding the National Institutes of Health’s involvement with such research seems to have changed, and no longer matches up with the NIH’s own claims regarding whether it funded such controversial work.

Fauci has repeatedly denied involvement in gain-of-function research conducted in Wuhan, China – the city where the pandemic is believed to have originated. However, last month the NIH admitted it had funded certain experiments on bat coronaviruses in China through a grant provided to a company called EcoHealth Alliance, with which Fauci’s department was involved.

Citing the NIH statement, Cruz on Sunday insisted Fauci may have committed a felony if he lied before Congress about the subject.