Rand Paul hopeful Fauci testimony will answer remaining COVID questions

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he’s looking forward to questioning former pandemic chief Anthony Fauci over the origins of COVID-19 during a congressional hearing scheduled for next month.

Paul has been the loudest voice calling for investigations into government action surrounding COVID-19 origins, specifically into U.S. government funding of biotech research in China. He’s a major proponent of the “lab leak” theory of COVID, but the disease’s exact origin is still unknown.

“What we discovered is everything Anthony Fauci was saying in private, he was saying the opposite in public,” Paul said in a Fox News interview Friday. “So when he came to Congress, he basically lied to Congress and said that they weren’t funding dangerous gain-of-function research in Wuhan, research that in all likelihood led to the virus.”

Paul’s theory is that dangerous research at a Chinese-run lab in Wuhan, China — which received some U.S. funds — created the COVID pandemic through a lab mishap. He claims that Fauci and the U.S. government then executed a cover-up to hide involvement.

“This may be the worst medical decision ever made by a scientist or physician in government, not to review [Wuhan lab tests] for safety before allowing this money to go to China,” Paul continued.

The senator, also a COVID vaccine skeptic, has openly called for Fauci to be jailed for his involvement in the pandemic. Fauci served as the head of pandemic response during both the Trump and Biden administrations.

“But the real question is, was the top of the food chain of the cover-up Anthony Fauci?” Paul questioned on Friday.

Paul also alleged that the CIA may have been involved in such a cover-up, an unproven conspiracy theory.