If you turn to almost any television news program, listen to virtually any radio station, or read a daily newspaper, you can expect to receive opinions offered by Dr. Anthony Fauci. He’s a New York City native who earned a degree as a medical doctor and then spent almost his entire medical career as a medical bureaucrat.
Fauci’s early education included eight years of learning provided by Jesuits at their Manhattan-based Regis High School and Holy Cross College located in Massachusetts. Raised as a Catholic, his Wikipedia bio sketch reports that he now considers himself “a humanist.” After receiving his M.D. at Cornell University in 1966 and serving as a resident physician at Cornell Medical Center in New York City for two years, he began his long career with federal government health agencies. By 1984, he was named director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a post he still holds. He is known in the scientific community for his efforts combatting HIV/AIDS, SARS, Swine Flu, and other maladies, none of which brought him the notoriety he has received during the campaign against COVID-19.
As President Biden’s principal adviser regarding what is now labeled the “COVID pandemic,” Fauci initially did not view masks as being effective against coronavirus before became a strong promoter of mask-wearing to keep the virus from spreading. Then he backed away from a need to be masked before soon returning to insistence that practically everyone must wear one — including the vaccinated. He even publicly showed himself with two masks on one occasion to demonstrate the need. His on-again, off-again, on-again attitude regarding masks for the public led many to question, even doubt, his recommendations about other matters.
The matter of how and where the COVID-19 disease began its worldwide spread spurred Kentucky Senator Rand Paul during a formal Senate hearing to pepper the now-famous NIAID chieftain with some penetrating questions. Among other questions, Paul sought answers about a suspicious laboratory in Wuhan, China, where, as many have come to believe, the COVID disease was originated. In the third of recent senate hearings where Dr. Fauci was questioned, an exchange between the famous doctor and GOP Senator Paul (himself a medical doctor) led to a virtual shouting match on July 20.
Senator Paul asked Dr. Fauci about possible “gain of function” research carried out at the Wuhan lab and the possibility that it was funded by the U.S. government’s National Institutes of Health (NIH). Medical personnel use the “gain of function” technique to learn more about how a disease can be combatted. Paul explained that he had obtained a copy of a paper written by Wuhan-based Chinese scientist Dr. Shi wherein she discussed creating viruses not found naturally but could be found to infect animals and not humans. Stated the Kentucky senator, “The new viruses … were manipulated in the Wuhan lab.” Paul further pointed to the explicit admissions written by Dr. Shi to conclude that the viruses being created in Wuhan were indeed produced “to gain the function of infecting humans.” According to The Daily Signal, the U.S. government sent close to $600,000 to a group known as EcoHealth Alliance to fund coronavirus research at the Wuhan lab.
Senator Paul asked Fauci if he had lied in previous testimony: “Do you wish to retract your statement of May 11th where you claimed that the NIH never funded gain of research of research in Wuhan?” Fauci’s response contained no retraction, and he angrily insisted, “Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about.” He then accused the senator of lying. Paul summed up the exchange by pointing to the absence of substantive answers to clearly stated questions with an accusation directed to the NIAID leader, “You’re dancing around this because you’re trying to obscure responsibility for four million people dying around the world from a pandemic.” He clearly meant to hold both China and the U.S. government as guilty collaborators.
There is no doubt that Dr. Fauci was lying and that Dr. Paul did know what he was talking about. After all, Paul presented evidence of the funded gain-of-function research, but Fauci denied that the research in question was gain of function despite the fact that this research clearly fit Fauci’s own definition of gain of function. Yet, the major media, instead of going after Fauci for his perjury, made Paul the bad guy for his supposed bad treatment of Fauci.
One could detect that there was, within both the volatile Fauci-Paul exchange and the major media coverage of it, an intent on the part of Fauci and his media and political allies to shield NIH’s possible complicity in Communist China’s release (accidentally or otherwise) of COVID.
John F. McManus is president emeritus of The John Birch Society.
