Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., warned Sunday about the danger of “gain of function” experiments, particularly if a more lethal virus were to emerge in the same way it’s been speculated the coronavirus came from a Wuhan, China virology laboratory.
In an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Paul said the National Institutes of Health “admitted” funding the Wuhan Institute’s manipulation of viruses that “became more dangerous. That’s gain of function. They gained lethality.”
“If this came out of the lab in Wuhan, what if a worse virus comes out of a lab?” he said.
Paul referred to a commentary in The Washington Post by MIT assistant professor Kevin Esvelt warning that manipulating viruses that risks causing pandemics is to dangerous to allow.
“There hasn't been one hearing,” Paul said. “I've been asking Democrats to have a hearing on gain-of-function research so this doesn't happen again. You know, we do this research in the United States. This is a big, big question. This disease we're facing has a 1% mortality. What if we got a contagion that has a 50% mortality? They're actually doing experiments as we speak with viruses that have 50% mortality. That shouldn't be happening.”
“Democrats love Dr. [Anthony] Fauci so much that they will not have one hearing to investigate the origins of this virus,” he added.
Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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