Fauci tells GOP senator “if anyone is lying here it’s you” after baseless attacks on Covid origins

Dr Anthony Fauci has repeatedly rejected claims from Republican Senator Rand Paul that the NIH funded “gain of function” research on coronaviruses in China, a narrative that has helped to fuel conspiracy theories for months.

During a US Senate committee hearing on the government’s response to the Covid pandemic on 20 July, the GOP senator suggested Fauci, the chief White House medical adviser, had lied to Congress over whether the agency supported such research in the country.

Paul interrupted Fauci repeatedly before the physician eventually told the senator: ”if anyone is lying here it’s you”.