This is the Reason interview. I'm Zach Weissmuller. Thanks for listening. This is the audio

version of a video live stream that takes place every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern time. Go to reason.com

to check that out in real time or to our YouTube channel, YouTube.com forward slash reason TV.

Senator Paul, you do not know what you were talking about.

Those were the words that Anthony Fauci spoke in July 2021 to Senator Rand Paul, following

a series of questions from Paul about the potential that Fauci's agency had funded research

in Wuhan, China, that led directly to the COVID-19 pandemic. Paul's new book, Deception,

The Great COVID Cover-up, aims to show that, in fact, he very much did know what he was

talking about when it comes to U.S. funding of a risky gain-of-function

research, which involves making viruses more infectious and deadly to humans.

Internal emails later obtained by Congress showed that in February 2020,

Fauci was concerned about gain-of-function research in Wuhan,

and National Institutes of Health

Deputy Director Lawrence Tabak admitted in an October 2021 letter to the House of Representatives

that the agency had funded work there that led to a virus becoming more deadly in mice

with humanized lungs. I spoke with Paul about his book, his investigations

into the origins of COVID-19, and asked him to reflect on his famous exchange with Fauci and

what he thinks real accountability would look like. We also talked about his proposals to end

all government funding of gain of function research

and to prohibit government officials from meeting with social media companies

for the purpose of censoring legal speech.

Here is the reason interview with Senator Rand Paul.

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