Rand Paul slams Fauci's response to the first omicron case in the US
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul says it's 'foolish' for the government to issue public health policy until more is know about the omicron variant.
Following NIAID Director Anthony Fauci's appearance at Wednesday's White House press briefing where he repeatedly called for Americans to get injected with coronavirus vaccine booster shots if they are eligible, and downplayed a question about throngs of untested illegal immigrants crossing the southern border while American citizens face the potential of more travel restrictions, Sen. Rand Paul offered his response on "America Reports".
Fauci was asked by Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy if "everybody" entering the country should be tested for coronavirus. After Fauci said yes, Doocy followed up by asking about the substantial lack of security measures at the Mexican border for illegal immigrants versus American citizens traveling by air elsewhere.
Fauci replied that federal public health measure Title 42 is still in effect for many border crossers and stated that there's less "capability… of somebody getting on the plane and getting checked and looking at a passport – we don't have that there."
Paul told Fox News Fauci's seeming lack of concern for the border crisis' effect on the spread of coronavirus, including the new omicron variant, showed the immunologist is "clearly a partisan."
"He’s somebody who's more for being a vaccines bureaucrat to now being out there in front of everything. But, realize what he always defaults to is more rules, more regulation, and less of your liberty," said Paul, a Kentucky Republican senator and medical doctor of ophthalmology.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, responds to questions by Senator Rand Paul on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on July 20, 2021. (Photo by J. Scott Applewhite / POOL / AFP) ((Photo by J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/POOL/AFP via Getty Images))
Paul further pointed to recent public criticism Fauci made toward Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, after the Houston lawmaker blasted his "I represent science" remark made during a CBS News interview.
"He attack[ed] Senator Cruz over his opinion on seating the [2020] electors," said Paul. "He's a partisan."
"And instead of waiting to find out whether this is a dangerous variant, he immediately wants to test everybody," he added, alluding to the discovery of the first omicron variant case in the United States in California.
"The best thing to do is to find out how potent it is and make rational and reasonable decisions – not by government but by individuals in America talking with her doctors and making individual decisions," said Paul.
The senator also commented on President Biden's expected announcement of federal mitigation actions on Thursday, after the Washington Post reported they might or might not include additional testing requirements as well as a mandatory fine-enforced weeklong quarantine for any American, even if they test negative, who is traveling home to the United States.
Being overzealous with testing requirements, Paul noted, can be counterproductive.
"Who would waste millions of dollars and interrupt millions of people’s travel and quarantine all these people. If it’s a black plague, maybe we do have to do more testing," he said.
WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 01: Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Chief Medical Advisor to the President, waits to deliver an update on the Omicron COVID-19 variant during the daily press briefing at the White House. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Paul said it is too early for the government to begin issuing edicts about a variant the experts still know mildly little about.
"It would be foolish to have any public health policy come out tomorrow -- anything that Biden says will be unsupported by any science – and it will be his gut protective, ‘government must do something,'" he said. "In all likelihood, government will do the wrong thing. We should wait, we should pause, and study this."
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"The first thing we need to know is [whether] this a worse variant or a less-lethal variant … If it’s less lethal, this might be a lucky break for us. If it’s more lethal, the government should do is get out of the way of a new vaccine and also new monoclonal antibodies."
"Instead, Fauci will want you to wear an extra mask, and dictate you can't go to church," he remarked, adding that mitigation measures should instead be commensurate to the scientifically determined severity of the new virus variant.