In a lengthy interview with Fox's Sean Hannity on Feb. 27, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said that gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, allegedly supported by Dr. Anthony Fauci, "may have been one of the greatest cover-ups in modern medical history." 

Senator Paul, a medical doctor, also agreed that the CDC has repeatedly given the wrong advice about dealing with the COVID pandemic and this has "destroyed trust in vaccines and everything else because they're really telling you stuff that's obviously not true and you shouldn't take it.”

The interview on Monday was prompted by the Wall Street Journal report (of Feb. 26) that the U.S. Department of Energy had concluded the "COVID pandemic most likely arose from a laboratory leak" in Wuhan, China. The FBI has reached the same conclusion. 

Discussing the matter, Hannity asked Sen. Paul whether U.S. taxpayer funds were funnelled from the National Institutes of Health to the Eco-Health Alliance and then to the Wuhan Institute of Virology where gain-of-function research on corona visurses reportedly occurred.

Paul replied, “Without question. And it may have been one of the greatest cover-ups in modern medical history. It will also get out in history it's probably one of the worst decisions that any government bureaucrat ever made."

“When Anthony Fauci made the decision to fund dangerous gain–of-function research in Wuhan, under the auspices of an authoritarian government, this decision was one of the worst decisions ever made. And there's been a cover-up ever since the very beginning."

Fauci resigned as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in December 2022, a position he had held since 1984.  Fauci also stepped down in December as the chief medical adviser to President Biden on the COVID pandemic. 

Paul continued, "You can go back and see the emails between him and Francis Collins, who is head of NIH, them conspiring basically to cover this up. But now we have a mountain of evidence. The problem is much of it is classified. But The New York Times reported from the Department of Energy that their scientists now believe that this came from a lab is actually classified and somebody leaked it illegally."

Hannity then remarked, “On the issue of COVID, haven't they been wrong on pretty much everything? We now know that they were wrong on masks. We now know that when they told us if you got the vaccine, that you'd never get COVID -- that turned out to be a lie."

He continued, "If you get a booster, that's going to help you, that did not help many people. We even had studies showing that if you got a booster, you might increase your chances of catching COVID."

Senator Paul answered, “I think they're trying to escape the culpability because ultimately, Anthony Fauci's advocacy, he had to go outside the boundaries of the normal process. There's a committee that's supposed to review these dangerous viruses and see if the experiments are too risky and shouldn't happen. This didn't occur in the Wuhan experiments."

"Anthony Fauci gave a waiver," said Paul. "He was one of the few people in government who could give a waiver that said the research doesn't have to be reviewed by the community, we're just going to let it happen."

Later in the interview, Paul discussed some of the irrational medical advice being pushed by the CDC.

"Here's the problem," said Paul.  "This is what the CDC currently tells you about COVID. If your 15-year-old has had COVID, they still want him to be vaccinated. If your 15-year-old boy has had COVID, they wanted to be vaccinated, he gets vaccinated. Let's say he gets myocarditis, chest pain, goes to the hospital and has a heart ailment from the vaccine."

"Do you know what the CDC tells you?" asked Paul.  "As soon as he's better, he should get another vaccine."

"No parent with any lick of common sense would allow their kid to be vaccinated after they've already had COVID and had myocarditis from the vaccine," said Paul.  "But the CDC's recommendation is that your kid should get a second vaccine as soon as their heart is better. The vaccine caused him a heart inflammation and the CDC tells you to --."

"This is why nobody trusts the CDC because no mom with any bit of common sense would ever subject their kid to another vaccination after they added heart inflammation from the first one," said the senator.

"This is how idiotic these people are and how moronic they have destroyed trust," he added. "They are the ones that have destroyed trust in vaccines and everything else because they're really telling you stuff that's obviously not true and you shouldn't take it.”

According to the World Health Organization, 6,859,093 people worldwide have died from COVID. In the U.S., there have been 1,109,145 deaths from COVID. 

On Feb. 28, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said, "The COVID virus escaped from a Chinese government lab and the millions of deaths are a result of that virus escaping from a Chinese government lab." 

"The corporate media for two years has been lying about this," he said. "They have been labeling as misinformation and conspiracy theory the obvious inference that this escaped from a Chinese lab, I think likely the Wuhan Institute of Virology."

"The government of China needs to be held accountable for the millions of lives lost because of this virus, for the trillions of dollars of damage in terms of jobs destroyed, businesses destroyed, the world economy brought to its knees because of China's culpability."