A disagreement between Republican Sen. Rand Paul and Dr. Anthony Fauci has put $600,000 of U.S. grant money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology back into the spotlight, while making “gain-of-function” research a household term — all amid calls for more investigation into the origins of SARS-CoV-2.
In calling for a “thorough investigation” into “election fraud,” Republican Sen. Rand Paul distorted the facts about a Wisconsin policy that was introduced by Republicans and put in place before the 2016 general election.
Sen. Rand Paul says raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour will cost nearly 4 million people their jobs, citing the Congressional Budget Office. CBO’s median estimate is 1.3 million in 2025.
In a tweet, Sen. Rand Paul misleadingly suggested that immunity from “[n]aturally acquired” COVID-19 was better than that from a vaccine. But it’s not known how immunity from the two sources compares — and the entire point of a vaccine is to offer immunity without the risk of getting sick.
Sen. Rand Paul claimed without evidence that only counterprotesters were arrested at the Million MAGA March and its tumultuous aftermath, and that they were solely responsible for the outbreaks of violence there.
Coronavirus task force member Dr. Scott Atlas and Sen. Rand Paul have misleadingly suggested that much of the U.S. population has immunity to the coronavirus due to previous exposure to similar viruses. But scientists say any possible protection is theoretical.
The fact-checking fodder included claims about the economy, the Democratic nominee and the president’s actions.
At a June 8 press conference, a World Health Organization scientist confusingly suggested that asymptomatic transmission of the coronavirus is “very rare” — a statement that many scientists found problematic, and which some politicians and those on social media seized upon as evidence that certain public health measures were not necessary.
In May 2018, three Democratic senators wrote to the Ukrainian prosecutor general, asking about a report that he had frozen four Ukrainian investigations involving Paul Manafort to avoid angering President Donald Trump. Republicans have called the letter a “threat” to withhold support for aid to Ukraine, saying it’s similar to what critics have charged Trump did.
Sen. Rand Paul misrepresented two studies supported by federal grants, while advocating legislation he introduced to change the federal grant funding process.