WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has vowed to introduce an amendment that would remove Dr. Anthony Fauci from his position as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), saying that the White House medical advisor should no longer be the “dictator in chief” when it comes to national health policies following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Paul and Fauci have been regular verbal sparring partners for some time during Senate hearings over the White House’s response to the pandemic, and in a new op-ed he penned for Fox News, the Kentucky senator claimed that, due to the past two years of lockdowns and medical mandates, “lives were held captive by petty tyrants and power-hungry bureaucrats.”
“This week marks the two-year anniversary of the COVID lockdowns. I join the American people in mourning the lives lost to this virus. I also mourn those we lost to the crushing and overbearing lockdowns and mandates,” he said. “The toll of COVID doesn’t stop there. We lost more than individuals. We lost our freedoms. Our liberties. Our vibrant small town Main Streets. Our children’s growth and learning. For two years our lives were held captive by petty tyrants and power-hungry bureaucrats.”
His new amendment, Paul stated, would ensure this would never happen again; he said this would be achieved by removing Dr. Fauci as head of NIAID and divvying up his authority among new entities.
“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,” he said. “To ensure that ineffective, unscientific lockdowns and mandates are never foisted on the American people ever again, I will introduce an amendment to eliminate Dr. Anthony Fauci’s position as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and divide his power into three separate new institutes.”
Calling Fauci “an unelected bureaucrat with far too much power,” Paul said that his amendment would “create accountability and oversight” where he claimed none existed previously.
“Each of these three institutes will be led by a director who is appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate for a five-year term. 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 said. “No one person should have the sole authority to dictate science, especially when that one person wasn’t ever 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 ended his op-ed by noting his proposed amendment will be up for a vote this week.
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