NIH acknowledges US funded gain-of-function at Wuhan lab, Sen. Rand Paul reacts

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) - “The NIH kept saying, ‘No, we didn’t do it, we didn’t do it,’ until last night they admitted, ‘Yes, they did do it,” said Sen. Rand Paul.

The National Institutes of Health is now admitting to funding gain-of-function research at a lab in Wuhan, China despite repeated denials from Dr. Anthony Fauci that U.S. tax dollars were used on the funding.

“So, the head of the Congressional Oversight Committee from the House of Representatives demanded the information and for once we got somebody who actually responded and told the truth. See I’ve been asking my counterparts, Democrats across the aisle, to investigate this. Not for partisan reasons, but because both sides should want to prevent another pandemic from occurring,” Sen. Rand Paul said.

In a letter to Rep. James Comer, ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, an NIH official admits that a “limited experiment” was conducted in order to test if “spike proteins from naturally occurring bat coronaviruses circulating in China were capable of binding to the human ace2 receptor in a mouse model.”

“Right now we have a virus where the hold world has been turned on its head, it has a 1% mortality. Can you imagine if they create something in a lab that has a 15% mortality or 50% mortality? Some of the viruses they have been experimenting with in Wuhan have 50% mortality,” Sen. Rand Paul said. “So, this isn’t just about Dr. Fauci lying, this is about trying to make sure that we don’t get an even worse plague or pandemic that comes out of a lab. We do this research in our country, it needs to be looked at.”

Fauci has testified before congress stating multiple times that NIH does not fund gain-of-function research in Wuhan, but Sen. Paul has insisted that Fauci is lying to congress.

“He’s now being disingenuous saying he’s never been a supporter of it. He is the world’s biggest supporter of gain-of-function. He’s said that many many times, but now the truth has come out. Even the NIH admits that Dr. Fauci was lying. Dr. Fauci has been avoiding the truth for months and months and months,” Sen. Rand Paul said.

Paul responded to the news on twitter saying quote “I told you so doesn’t even begin to cover it here.

“This is a big deal because now the NIH is admitting gain-of-function research did occur in Wuhan and it was funded by the lab. And there’s also been a cover up of this for over a year now. He should accept responsibility and immediately resign and step down from government,” Sen. Paul said.

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