Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Dr. Anthony Fauci’s feud has taken a new direction. The senator introduced legislation to end the country’s top doctor’s job claiming that the COVID-related mandates were the work of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director and the Chief Medical Advisor to the President unilaterally. Effectively, Sen. Paul wants to cancel Fauci by ending the NIAID as the agency currently exists, eliminating Fauci’s 38-year position.
The legislation proposes amending the NIAID from one to three separate agencies each with its own director: National Institute of Allergic Diseases, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, and National Institute of Immunologic Diseases. Directors would be appointed by the president and approved by the Senate for a 5-year tenure, according to NBC.
Republican politicians, especially former-President Donald Trump’s supporters, fought against “abusive, dictatorial, and tyrannical” COVID-related protections placed to reduce the impact of the pandemic these past two years. During the first year, Trump convinced most Republican-Americans that the pandemic was merely media hype even though more than 350,000 people died in 2020, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The Kentucky Senator’s hope is the legislation would ensure that lockdowns and mandates are never forced on the country ever again.
Paul supports his decision in introducing the amendment saying that Fauci unilaterally made decisions for millions of Americans and no one person should have that much power. Dismantling the NIAID into three agencies would allow for greater oversight and accountability.
He cites Congress passing a law in 2012 that eliminated the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) merging their programs into other agencies as the precedent. They created the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) to absorb some of the NCRR’s functions. The balance of the NCRR programs was assigned to other agencies within the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Senator Paul bought into the theory that Dr. Fauci funded research at a Chinese lab responsible for the COVID-19 outbreak. He accused the NIAID director of lying to Congress. He spent months attacking Fauci during inquiries and in media.
At one point, the doctor turned the tables on the senator. He not only proclaimed he had never lied, not to Congress, not ever, but then he declared Paul was the liar, according to NBC.
Part of the feud was fueled by Fauci’s impatience with anti-COVID mandates. He spent the first year of the pandemic trying to overcome Trump’s inertia, denial, and lies about the potential impact the virus would have on the country.
When President Joe Biden took office in 2021, America’s leading doctor was given the ability to speak the truth surrounding lockdowns, masking, and vaccination mandates. Unfortunately, this change in policy sparked accusations by Senator Paul and other Republicans, who appeared oblivious about the toll COVID-19 continued to foist on the country.
Paul is not the first Congressperson to propose canceling Dr. Fauci. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) introduced House Bill H.R. 2316 in April 2021. Her legislation also called the Fire Fauci Act, would reduce the NIAID director’s salary. Greene’s bill asserts that he is paid too much and that he “has continually failed to provide Americans with accurate information about the COVID–19 pandemic and has shown distrust in the American private sector and American ingenuity,” according to FOX 8.
Written by Cathy Milne-Ware
Sources:
NBC LEX 18 News: Sen. Rand Paul introduces amendment that would get rid of Dr. Fauci as head of NIAID
Daily Mail: Republican Senator Rand Paul introduces amendment to eliminate Dr. Fauci’s position after two years of lockdown and being ‘held captive by petty tyrants and power-hungry bureaucrats;’ by Elizabeth Elkind
FOX 8: Sen. Rand Paul introduces amendment to eliminate Fauci’s position; by Cris Belle
Spectrum News: U.S. COVID deaths in 2021 surpass 2020 total; by Ryan Chatelain
Politico: ‘Abusive, dictatorial, tyrannical’: Republicans ramp up attacks on lockdowns; by Melanie Zanona
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Gage Skidmore’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image by Shealah Craighead Courtesy of Trump White House Archive’s Flickr Page – Public Domain License
