Anthony S. Fauci forcefully batted down Sen. Rand Paul’s baseless claim that the U.S. government funded research in China that might have helped make the coronavirus more contagious, calling Paul’s assertion “entirely and completely incorrect.”
“The U.S. government should admit that the Wuhan Virology Institute was experimenting to enhance the coronavirus’s ability to infect humans. Juicing up super viruses is not new,” the Kentucky Republican said at a Senate hearing on combating the pandemic before asking the nation’s leading infectious-disease doctor if he believed U.S. funding of the Wuhan lab should stop.
“Senator Paul, with all due respect, you are entirely, entirely and completely incorrect that the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain of function research in the Wuhan Institute,” Fauci said.
Gain of function is a scientific term for studying how to make a virus more efficient, typically used in labs to study the effectiveness of drugs and vaccines against the virus.
“Government scientists like yourself who favor gain function … ” Paul began.
“I don’t favor gain of function research in China and you are saying things that are not correct,” Fauci interjected.
Last year, the Trump administration forced the NIH to terminate a grant for a study that examined how coronaviruses spread from bats to humans. The study’s sponsor was a New York-based nonprofit called EcoHealth Alliance, and the Wuhan Institute of Virology had a subgrant under the contract. The NIH halted payments to the subcontractor in Wuhan last year as experts tried to determine whether the virus could have slipped out of the lab in Wuhan.
Some right-wing media and politicians have seized on the theory that the virus was engineered in or escaped from the lab in Wuhan, and suggested falsely that the NIH helped fund that research.
“I fully agree that you should investigate where the virus came from,” Fauci said. “But again, we have not funded gain of function research on this virus in the Wuhan Institute of Virology … no matter how many times you say it, it didn’t happen.”
This is the second tense exchange at a Senate hearing between Fauci and Paul. In March, the two had a heated disagreement over the importance of continued mask-wearing.
“The U.S. government should admit that the Wuhan Virology Institute was experimenting to enhance the coronavirus’s ability to infect humans. Juicing up super viruses is not new,” the Kentucky Republican said at a Senate hearing on combating the pandemic before asking the nation’s leading infectious-disease doctor if he believed U.S. funding of the Wuhan lab should stop.
“Senator Paul, with all due respect, you are entirely, entirely and completely incorrect that the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain of function research in the Wuhan Institute,” Fauci said.
Gain of function is a scientific term for studying how to make a virus more efficient, typically used in labs to study the effectiveness of drugs and vaccines against the virus.
“Government scientists like yourself who favor gain function … ” Paul began.
“I don’t favor gain of function research in China and you are saying things that are not correct,” Fauci interjected.
Last year, the Trump administration forced the NIH to terminate a grant for a study that examined how coronaviruses spread from bats to humans. The study’s sponsor was a New York-based nonprofit called EcoHealth Alliance, and the Wuhan Institute of Virology had a subgrant under the contract. The NIH halted payments to the subcontractor in Wuhan last year as experts tried to determine whether the virus could have slipped out of the lab in Wuhan.
Some right-wing media and politicians have seized on the theory that the virus was engineered in or escaped from the lab in Wuhan, and suggested falsely that the NIH helped fund that research.
“I fully agree that you should investigate where the virus came from,” Fauci said. “But again, we have not funded gain of function research on this virus in the Wuhan Institute of Virology … no matter how many times you say it, it didn’t happen.”
This is the second tense exchange at a Senate hearing between Fauci and Paul. In March, the two had a heated disagreement over the importance of continued mask-wearing.