Rand Paul attacks Bill Gates for "funding the biggest danger to mankind"
The senator compared the risk of creating new viruses for research to that of nuclear weapons. He claimed it could cause the death of between 5-50% of the population.
Senator Rand Paul accused Bill Gates of financing "the biggest danger to mankind" with his donations to research that creates virus, "that we may never interact with." The lawmaker said the U.S. and China should be held accountable for the havoc they wreaked on the world by creating the ideal environment in the Wuhan laboratory for which the COVID-19 could jump to humans and cause the pandemic.
Viruses taken out of remote caves and brought to cities
During an interview on Fox's "Sunday Morning Futures," Paul pointed out that the responsibility for the alleged leak from the Chinese laboratory does not lie solely with the Chinese authorities. "The blame equally should go not only to Chinese authorities, but to Anthony Fauci and all those who advocated for this," he said. However, the main focus of his criticism was the founder of Microsoft.
"Viruses that do not exist in nature"
The senator criticized that, if viruses like these are already something that scientists regard as a danger, it is even worse to create new types that do not exist in nature: ""[Many scientists think] we don't need to be searching for viruses that may never interact with man, and it's worse than that. They bring viruses that we may never interact with. They bring them back to the lab, but then they manipulate them by combining them with other viruses to create viruses that don't exist in nature."
Paul stressed there is a real risk that a manmade virus could cause a much deadlier pandemic. He therefore put this risk "up there with the danger of a nuclear war."