In a VIP column last night, I highlighted the complete puff piece Politico put out there on Dr. Anthony Fauci and referenced how one of his most prolific critics, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), has gotten death threats as of late. As the senator shared just last night during an appearance on Fox News' "Hannity," they continue to come.
"But you know what the other danger is, I've had five death threats this week, just for being outspoken on it," Sen. Paul, who is also a doctor, said. "This week I've had five death threats. I don't know what the world's coming to that you can't ask honest, difficult questions that in the end have turned out, have proved Dr. Fauci was not being honest with us, but as a repercussion my family had white powder sent to our house and five death threats phoned in."
Paul was referencing a white powder and menacing message sent to his home in Kentucky recently, which Townhall reported on, though the white powder was discovered to be benign.
Former CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield has also received death threats, from fellow scientists, because he dared to share on CNN that it was his "own feelings," and "opinion," that the Wuhan virus originated from the Wuhan lab.
The other "danger" Sen. Paul was speaking of is for Dr. Fauci to go unquestioned.
As Townhall has covered, and as members of Congress such as Sen. Paul and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) have sounded the alarm, Dr. Fauci is very much a believer in gain of function research, though his flip flopping on the issue has involved claiming that what the NIH and NIAID are involved in is not gain of function. As members like Paul and Gallagher have pointed out, though, that's not the opinion of others in the field.
The emails which were released earlier this week only provide further proof of Fauci's fixation with gain of function. As Paul explained at the beginning of his interview with Hannity, it's when you "take animal viruses, make them into super viruses, to infect humans, even if a pandemic should occur." Dr. Fauci has yet to back off from supporting such research.
To avoid the "danger" of placing too much trust in Fauci, Sen. Paul shared his idea to take partisanship out of the process.
"I want scientists that are not partisan to come to Washington, so I sent a letter today to the head of my committee and Homeland Security, and also the Health committee, to say we need to have a hearing with impartial scientists who are on the other side of Dr. Fauci, who believe that it's incredibly dangerous."
The need to question Fauci was a point emphasized throughout the interview.
Yet, as Sen. Paul also pointed out, Fauci "hides behind the veil of 'oh, I'm the only smart person in the room, no one else could understand this,' but any other PhD scientists in this field completely disagree with him and don't think it's worth risking a pandemic, they don't think we should be doing this research, and they haven't seen any benefits of it either."
Being the highest paid federal employee thanks to a salary of over $40,000 and regular positive press, though, it's hardly surprising that Fauci would have such an air of importance to him.
Later in the interview, Sen. Paul responded to Hannity that Fauci lying to Congress "absolutely is a crime," but that "Dr. Fauci is going to work around his words, he's being very careful with his words. It sounded like he was saying 'no money went to NIH,' but he was specifically saying 'no money went to the Wuhan Institute,' but he was being more precise in saying that 'no gain of function money went.' That's verifiably false also, but it's going to come down to an opinion. He's going to say that it wasn't gain of function, many other scientists are already and have been saying for almost a year now, that it was gain of function. But he's not being truthful, he's not being completely forthcoming. He's shading the meaning of truth, this is a real problem."
Paul's interview took place during the same time slot as Fauci appearance on MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show," which Landon covered.
Maddow said on air that "people attacking [Fauci] now appear to be mad at him for the fact that there's an epidemic at all." It's not all that far-fetched a point considering as Paul mentioned in his interview with Hannity, and as Townhall has reported, Dr. Fauci himself has said that performing gain-of-function research would be worth risking a pandemic.