White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci insists that Republicans are actually criticizing science when they criticize him, but Sen. Rand Paul disagrees with the doctor’s political diagnosis.
The Kentucky Republican denounced Dr. Fauci for declaring “I represent science” in a Sunday interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“The absolute hubris of someone claiming THEY represent science,” tweeted Mr. Paul, who is also a medical doctor. “It’s astounding and alarming that a public health bureaucrat would even think to claim such a thing, especially one who has worked so hard to ignore the science of natural immunity.”
In the interview, Dr. Fauci said there was a “distinct anti-science flavor” to the Republican criticism of his work on COVID-19.
“So if they get up and criticize science, nobody’s going to know what they’re talking about. But if they get up and really aim their bullets at Tony Fauci, well, people could recognize there’s a person there. There’s a face, there’s a voice you can recognize, you see him on television,” Dr. Fauci said. “So it’s easy to criticize, but they’re really criticizing science, because I represent science.”
Dr. Fauci and Mr. Paul, an ophthalmologist, have clashed repeatedly at Senate hearings over the U.S. response to the novel coronavirus.
Earlier this month, the senator called on Dr. Fauci to resign, accusing the National Institutes of Health of funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in central China, which Dr. Fauci denies.
Mr. Paul, who refused to wear a mask after recovering last year from COVID-19, has also charged Dr. Fauci with giving short shrift to the role of natural immunity in fighting off COVID-19 infections.
The absolute hubris of someone claiming THEY represent science. It’s astounding and alarming that a public health bureaucrat would even think to claim such a thing, especially one who has worked so hard to ignore the science of natural immunity. https://t.co/rcDezphVRR
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) November 28, 2021
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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