Rand Paul Sounds Alarm Over Gain-of-Function Research, Calls It an Existential Threat to Humanity

Rand Paul Sounds Alarm Over Gain-of-Function Research, Calls It an Existential Threat to Humanity

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) intensified his warnings about gain-of-function research on Thursday, arguing that the controversial experiments pose a grave danger to humanity and serve no legitimate scientific purpose. Comparing the practice to “Dr. Frankenstein,” Paul said scientists are recklessly manipulating viruses in ways that could unleash catastrophic global consequences. Speaking on Newsmax’s “The Record With Greta Van Susteren,” Paul discussed his decision, as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, to subpoena former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci to testify later this month regarding the origins of COVID-19. Paul said the upcoming hearing will focus on the type of research that many Republicans believe played a role in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Describing how gain-of-function research works, Paul explained that scientists combine genetic material from different viruses and then grow the modified viruses in human cells to determine whether they become more infectious. “Gain of function just describes a type of experiment where what happens is you take one known virus and maybe one unknown virus,” he said. “You take parts of them, put them together, and then grow them in human cells to see if they gain in function.” The Kentucky senator also renewed his criticism of Fauci’s longstanding position that an experiment cannot be classified as gain-of-function unless researchers know beforehand that it will create a more dangerous virus. “Anthony Fauci has argued, well, if you don’t know in advance they’re going to gain in function, then you can’t really call it gain of function,” he said. “But they did know, and they continued to do these experiments in Wuhan, even when the evidence from the experiments was showing that it was gaining in function.” When host Greta Van Susteren asked whether such research has any valid scientific justification, Paul rejected the premise outright. “I don’t think there is,” he said. Paul noted that Fauci wrote in a 2011 opinion article that “even if a pandemic should occur from gain-of-function research, that the knowledge is worth the risk,” but argued that numerous scientists strongly disagree with that assessment. “They’ve done things like take the avian flu, which doesn’t go human to human well or at all, and they’ve put in eight mutations to make it transmissible, not only human to human, but through the air,” he said. “It’s sort of like being Dr. Frankenstein and doing these kind of things. There is no good purpose for this. It’s incredibly dangerous,” he continued. Paul cautioned that the risks are not limited to coronaviruses, pointing to Ebola as another example of a deadly pathogen that could become far more dangerous if deliberately altered. “We have things like Ebola that aren’t readily transmitted by aerosol,” Paul said. “If you change it and mutate it on purpose to make it aerosolized … you would risk 50% of the planet dying.” He concluded by warning that the fallout from such an event would extend well beyond the virus itself, overwhelming healthcare systems and basic infrastructure worldwide. “You would have people dying by the tens of thousands just from lack of doctors, lack of sanitation, lack of clean water,” he added. “I mean, you would devastate the planet. So, we shouldn’t be doing these experiments.” {Matzav.com}