Sen. Rand Paul is blaming thousands of COVID-19 deaths per month on the country’s lead immunologist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, saying that his “bias” toward vaccines is responsible.
“I would venture to say that thousands of people die in our country every month now from COVID because [Fauci’s] deemphasized the idea that there are therapeutics,” Paul, who is also a medical doctor, claimed in an interview on the Ron Paul Liberty Report that was published on Monday.
The Kentucky Republican explained that Fauci’s long preference for vaccines dates back to his early work on the AIDS virus in the 1980s.
“I think Fauci is of the philosophy that vaccines are incredibly successful and are the way to go versus therapeutics, for example. So with regard to AIDS, he was involved as the AIDS epidemic came up, he wanted to develop a vaccine,” he noted in the interview with his father, former Texas GOP Rep. Ron Paul, who also ran for president on a few occasions.
“There’s nothing wrong with that. He wanted to develop a vaccine. Vaccines can be great for polio or smallpox or wonderful. It didn’t actually work for AIDS,” he told his dad, who is also a physician.
The GOP senator has said in the past that monoclonal antibodies “are one of the most promising treatments for the virus” once a person has become infected. But he noted further that misinformation regarding that treatment is rife with “government bureaucrats.”
“Recent data showed that monoclonal antibody treatment cuts the risk of death and hospitalization by 70% in high-risk patients and reduces the chance of infection among a household by 80%,” Paul wrote in an op-ed published in September.
“Monoclonal antibodies have only just begun to be mentioned by the mainstream media, and misinformation still plagues government bureaucrats when discussing this scientifically-backed treatment,” he continued.
“But like so many issues today, this treatment for COVID-19 has fallen subject to partisan political games. While Dr. Fauci and his friends at the CDC have rarely mentioned this treatment, that hasn’t stopped me from speaking out about it – both in media interviews and while traveling across Kentucky,” Paul wrote, adding: “You deserve to have this critical information.”
Previously, Fauci has recognized monoclonal antibodies as a “much-underutilized intervention,” but that has been overshadowed by his heavier focus on vaccines.
To that point, on Monday, Fauci suggested that the Biden administration make vaccines a requirement to get aboard a commercial flight, Fox News reported.
“That’s another incentive to get more people vaccinated,” he noted during an interview with MSNBC. “If you want to do that with domestic flights, I think that’s something that seriously should be considered.”
Paul and Fauci have regularly clashed over the latter’s handling of and recommendations during the pandemic, with the Kentucky Republican accusing President Biden’s chief medical adviser of funding dangerous gain-of-function research in China of the type suspected by some to have created COVID-19.
“The reason he [Fauci] won’t bring up natural immunity is because it foils his plans to get everybody possible vaccinated,” Paul noted on Fox Business’ “Kudlow” in October.
“He thinks it might slow down vaccination. And I’m for people getting vaccinated, particularly people at risk, but the thing is, if you ignore naturally acquired immunity then you’re saying we don’t have enough people, you have to force it on younger people,” he added.
Jon has over 30 years' worth of reporting experience, as well as an author and U.S. Army veteran. He has a BA in political science from Ashford University and an MA in national security studies/intelligence analysis from American Military University.
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