Former four-star admiral in the Department of Health and Human Services Brett Giroir criticized Dr. Anthony Fauci for trying to claim Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) did not know what he was talking about after he was pressed about gain-of-function research funding from the National Institutes of Health to the viral lab in Wuhan, China.
Fauci became very defensive during the heated exchange, but Paul kept up the pressure, saying Fauci had lied to Congress when he said the NIH never did provide funding for such research. Paul has since officially referred Fauci to the Department of Justice for allegedly lying to Congres under oath.
"I think it was a concerning exchange, and I do believe, probably, Dr. Fauci was hiding behind a technical definition of what the NIH might consider, quote, gain-of-function research. What they did fund was exactly what Rand Paul said," Giroir said.
"They funded researchers to go hundreds of miles away into the back of bat caves, extract dangerous viruses from bats that have never been seen by humans before, and bring them to a city of 10 million people in the Wuhan lab," he continued. "Next, they chopped up those viruses and created new Frankenstein viruses to see if they could infect human cells. That may not technically be quote gain of function research but it’s dangerous research and Senator Paul's questions deserve to be answered.
"If I were a betting man, and I’m not, I would bet all those viruses got immediately channeled into the Chinese bioweapons program with the Chinese military that we know were operating at the Wuhan lab. Legitimate questions. I don't think we got a legitimate answer," Giroir said.
Giroir noted he had not seen Fauci look so rattled as he did during the questioning from Paul because he is "usually pretty cool in those hearings."