Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced a measure on Monday that would eliminate the position held by Dr. Anthony Fauci as head of the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
Paul’s amendment, designed to take central power away from the head of that organization, would divide NIAID into three distinct research facilities.
“Paul’s amendment would reorganize NIAID by breaking it down into three separate national research institutes, all with their own director, including the National Institute of Allergic Diseases, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, and the National Institute of Immunologic Diseases,” Fox News reported.
But another important issue the amendment addresses, Paul said, was the fact that it removes sole power and discretion for enacting public policy from the hands of just one person.
'FAR TOO MUCH POWER': Sen. @RandPaul blasts Dr. Fauci, introduces amendment to eliminate his position and prevent others from becoming health 'dictators-in-chief.' https://t.co/dEr9Flizvg pic.twitter.com/8hbqrQEJY7
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 14, 2022
“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,’” Paul said, adding, “No one person should have unilateral authority to make decisions for millions of Americans.”
“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,” Paul continued, proposing that the NIAID be split into three institutes that would each be led by someone appointed by the president — and subject to Senate confirmation — to serve a five-year term.
Paul explained the need for his amendment in a piece published Monday for Fox News Digital:
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.
A rational person might ask, how in the world did it take us so long to get to the truth? Why did we spend two years not following the science?
Well again, that’s what happens when “the science” is dictated by one man, an unelected bureaucrat with far too much power.
“The biggest lesson we have learned over the last two years is that no one person should have this much unchecked power. And my amendment, which will get a vote this week, will finally force accountability and fire Dr. Fauci,” Paul concluded.
Paul has often sparred with Fauci in Senate hearings on the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, openly and repeatedly challenging his insistence on promoting face masks and the focus on pushing vaccination regardless of natural immunity.
The Kentucky Senator has also called for Fauci to be fired on more than one occasion.
As The Daily Wire reported:
“I’m proud of the fact people go to RandPaul.com raising money to fire Fauci because he is a menace,” Paul shot back. “Everything he said has been incorrect. And I think he is part of the problem. Even from the very beginning the fact that this virus came from a lab in Wuhan he has denied it and worked to cover it up and denigrated anybody who raises this question as a conspiracy theorist. So yes, he is a partisan politician and he has no place in any objective role over the pandemic and yeah, it’s a political thing. Whoever wins the election will make the decision whether he stays or goes or whether we investigate where the virus came from in the beginning.”