Greg Nash/Pool through AP, File
Sen. Rand Paul mentioned he’ll introduce an modification to take away Dr. Anthony Fauci as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — saying nobody needs to be “dictator in chief.”
Paul (R-Ky.), who typically feuded with Fauci at Senate hearings over the administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, mentioned American ”lives have been held captive by petty tyrants and power-hungry bureaucrats” over the previous two years.
“We’ve learned a lot over the past two years, but one lesson in particular is that no one person should be deemed ’dictator in chief.’ No one person should have unilateral authority to make decisions for millions of Americans,” Paul, an ophthalmologist, wrote in an op-ed on Fox News Monday.
”To be sure that ineffective, unscientific lockdowns and mandates are by no means foisted on the American folks ever once more, I’ll introduce an modification to eradicate Dr. Anthony Fauci’s place as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and divide his energy into three separate new institutes,” the senator continued.
Paul questioned Fauci’s authority to “dictate science” when he wasn’t “following the science.”
“I’ve said that from the beginning, and I’ve been proven right over, and over, and over again. On masks, lockdowns, schools, natural immunity, all of it,” Paul wrote two years after the US started widespread lockdowns in response to the lethal illness.
He mentioned the administrators of the three institutes will probably be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate for five-year phrases.
“This will create accountability and oversight into a taxpayer-funded position that has largely abused its power and has been responsible for many failures and misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic,” he mentioned.
Fauci has been the director of the NIAID since 1984.
Paul claimed the lockdowns did little to cease the unfold of the contagion that has to date killed greater than 960,000 Americans, in response to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, however despatched the US economic system right into a tailspin.
“The country is still reeling from the economic fallout of the lockdowns, which didn’t work. A group of researchers at Johns Hopkins University released a report confirming that,” the GOP senator mentioned.
“The report is an extensive analysis looking at dozens and dozens of studies, which comes to the conclusion that lockdowns did not reduce mortality but were devastating to the economy,” he continued.
Paul mentioned the most important victims have been youngsters, who have been compelled to put on masks in faculties and whose studying was disrupted over the previous two years due to college closures.
”All throughout the nation, hundreds of thousands of youngsters haven’t skilled a standard college day for the reason that starting of 2020. Whether or not it’s digital studying, having to put on masks all day, being separated by Plexiglas, obligatory vaccinations, weekly or day by day testing, canceled extracurricular actions, sports activities, and occasions, nothing is regular and it’s scarring our youngsters,” he mentioned.
Paul cited CDC figures that present emergency division psychological well being visits for teenagers 12 to 17 spiked 31% between March and October 2020, in comparison with the identical interval a 12 months earlier than.
In 2021, emergency rooms in 38 youngsters’s hospitals noticed a 47% improve within the variety of suicide and self-injury instances within the first 9 months of the 12 months amongst youngsters 5 to eight — and a 182% bounce amongst children ages 9 to 12, in comparison with 2016.
“But it wasn’t just lockdowns that affected kids. It was also the notion that they MUST wear a mask for eight hours a day that also created psychological issues and inhibited communication between students and teachers,” Paul mentioned.
He mentioned he tried to supply differing opinions to Fauci’s claims however was censored by social media and Fauci’s colleagues.
”I’ve been a doctor for over 33 years. In all my years learning and working towards drugs, I had by no means encountered somebody with the gall to proclaim himself ’the science’ and painting anybody opposing him as ’attacking science.’ That is, till Dr. Fauci grew to become the COVID dictator-in-chief,” he mentioned.
Paul additionally criticized Fauci for disregarding the chance that the virus originated in a lab in Wuhan, China, and whether or not the US was concerned in helping the Chinese in “gain of function” analysis.
“If Fauci was simply one family doctor in Peoria, his mistakes would not be so catastrophic. But since Fauci is allowed to be a medical czar for the whole country, his errors are amplified throughout the land,” Paul mentioned.
The post Rand Paul vows to remove ‘dictator in chief’ Fauci from NIAID first appeared on Umorr.
