This story is from November 29, 2021
I'm going to be saving lives, and they're going to be lying: Fauci blasts Republican senator over Covid claims about Chinese lab
WASHINGTON: Government's top infectious-diseases expert Dr Anthony
"I should be prosecuted? What happened on January 6, senator," Fauci, who is President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser, said in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation". It was a reference to the violent insurrection at the United States Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump that was stoked as
"I'm just going to do my job and I'm going to be saving lives, and they're going to be lying," Fauci said.
Some Republicans, including Cruz and senator
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, called the GOP criticism nonsense.
"Anybody who's looking at this carefully realises that there's a distinct anti-science flavor to this," he said.
Cruz and Paul say an October letter from NIH to Congress contradicts Fauci. But no clear evidence or scientific consensus exists that "gain of function" research was funded by NIH, and there is no link of the US-funded research to the emergence of Covid-19. NIH has repeatedly maintained that its funding did not go to such research involving boosting the infectivity and lethality of a pathogen.
When asked in the CBS interview whether Republicans might be raising the claims to make him a scapegoat and deflect criticism of Trump, Fauci said, "of course, you have to be asleep not to figure that one out".
Fauci
blasted senatorTed Cruz
for suggesting that he be investigated for his statements on a virology lab in Wuhan, the Chinese city, from where the Covid-19 spread, and said the criticism by the Texas Republican was an attack on science.Cruz
helped lead GOP objections to Congress' certifying the 2020 election results."I'm just going to do my job and I'm going to be saving lives, and they're going to be lying," Fauci said.
Some Republicans, including Cruz and senator
Rand Paul
, R-Ky, have accused Fauci of lying to Congress when he denied in May that the National Institutes of Health funded "gain of function" research - the practice of enhancing a virus in a lab to study its potential impact in the real world - at a virology lab in Wuhan, China. Cruz has urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Fauci's statements.Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, called the GOP criticism nonsense.
"Anybody who's looking at this carefully realises that there's a distinct anti-science flavor to this," he said.
Cruz and Paul say an October letter from NIH to Congress contradicts Fauci. But no clear evidence or scientific consensus exists that "gain of function" research was funded by NIH, and there is no link of the US-funded research to the emergence of Covid-19. NIH has repeatedly maintained that its funding did not go to such research involving boosting the infectivity and lethality of a pathogen.
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Balbir Singh Mehndiratta
1355 days ago
There should be no politics over life.Read allPost comment
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