Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told Newsmax on Tuesday night that a balancing act may have been at play in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While concerns over the virus' origins loomed, a more profound motivation emerged: preserving scientific collaboration and diplomatic relations with China.
"The other possibility is that they see relations with China and our interaction with China being more important than the truth, and so they didn't want to anger the Chinese and disrupt our scientific cooperation," Paul said on "Eric Bolling The Balance."
"This is essentially what [Dr. Anthony] Fauci and [Dr. Francis] Collins were saying and emails back to each other that if this became known as coming from a lab, that it would disrupt the business of science, it would disrupt relations with China, and it wouldn't be worth it," Paul said.
Paul's assertion underscores the intricate dynamics in the debate over the COVID-19 virus' origins.
According to Paul, figures like Fauci, prominent immunologist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and others harbored a desire to foster constructive relations with China, a sentiment influenced by the tangible benefits of scientific cooperation between nations. Paul suggests this inclination could have influenced certain individuals' decisions to abstain from openly attributing blame to the Chinese government in the early stages of the pandemic.
"So, I think many of them actually chose to cover this up because they did not want to point the finger at China, and they thought that there was a great deal of good that came from our interaction. But as a consequence, they thought it was less important to tell the truth to the American people about the origin of the virus," he said.
Amidst ongoing debates and investigations surrounding the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, questions have arisen regarding the role of Dr. Fauci.
Paul contends that Fauci faces a conflict of interest, alleging that his reluctance to embrace the theory of the virus originating in a laboratory may be linked to his institute's funding of the lab in Wuhan, China. This nexus of funding and potential culpability, Paul says, has fueled discussions about the extent of responsibility Dr. Fauci bears in the event that the virus escaped from the facility his organization supported.
"We have to realize that Anthony Fauci has a conflict of interest," Paul said.
"The reason he doesn't want there to be any evidence that this virus came out of a lab was because he funded the lab. So frankly, if this virus escaped the lab that he'd approved funding for, he bears some responsibility. He bears some culpability in the entire pandemic if he actually funded the lab where this came from."
Sen. Paul continued, "He's had an incentive to downplay and disregard and to lampoon and call a conspiracy theory. But now we have this evidence today: the CIA whistleblower. This is a senior person who's been there for many decades."
Sen. Paul emphasized the need for heightened calls for accountability surrounding the COVID-19 origin controversy. He pointed to the growing body of evidence that has fueled demands for Dr. Fauci to undergo scrutiny and fully disclose his role in funding the laboratory at the center of the debate.
"He should be culpable. He should be brought before us, and he should be made to tell the truth. We have a mountain of evidence. So, because we have his emails, we essentially know that he lied to the public from the beginning. Privately, he actually believed it came from the lab. Publicly, he called [it] a conspiracy theory. So, the big lie began from the beginning. But it was mostly to cover up his connection and his responsibility for funding this research in China."
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