Senator Rand Paul Introduces Amendment to Eliminate ‘Dictator-in-Chief’ Anthony Fauci’s Position as NIAID Director

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced an amendment Monday that would eliminate Dr. Anthony Fauci’s position as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and decentralize it in an effort to ensure no one person can act as “dictator-in-chief” and make public health decisions for millions of Americans.

Paul’s office said in a press release the amendment seeks to replace the NIAID director’s position with three separate national research institutes.

The senator, who is also a physician, said in a statement:

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.” No one person should have unilateral authority to make decisions for millions of Americans. To ensure that ineffective, unscientific lockdowns and mandates are never foisted on the American people ever again, I’ve introduced this amendment to eliminate Dr. Anthony Fauci’s position as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and divide his power into three separate new institutes. 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.

In an op-ed Monday at Fox News, Paul also wrote:

Dr. Fauci caused people to engage in activities they wouldn’t have normally by telling them it was safe when masked when it wasn’t. I tried to sound the alarm, but I was censored by YouTube and my videos were taken down. (“If Dr. Fauci says masks work, it must be true!” the fake-news fact-checkers all screamed in unison.)

Dr. Fauci and his friends worked diligently to silence opposing views. The media amplified his efforts. We were branded conspiracy theorists and anti-science for simply asking questions and presenting alternatives to what had been delivered to the American people as “fact.”

“I’ve been a physician for over 33 years,” Paul added. “In all my years studying and practicing medicine, I had never encountered someone with the gall to proclaim himself ‘the science’ and portray anyone opposing him as ‘attacking science.’ That is, until Dr. Fauci became the COVID dictator-in-chief.”

Paul’s amendment would immediately eliminate Fauci’s position and replace it with three new directors of the following institutes:

• National Institute of Allergic Diseases
• National Institute of Infectious Diseases
• National Institute of Immunologic Diseases

The directors of the institutes would be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate for a five-year term.

Paul’s office noted a precedent for such reorganization was seen in 2012, when “Congress passed a law that eliminated National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) and reassigned some of its programs to a new National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), and assigned other NCRR functions to other institutes within NIH.

The proposed amendment “also aligns with NIAID’s existing mission statement, which begins by saying: ‘NIAID conducts and supports basic and applied research to better understand, treat, and ultimately prevent infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases,’” the press statement said.

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Susan Berry, PhD, is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Anthony Fauci” by Bluerasberry. CC BY-SA 4.0. Photo “Rand Paul” by United States Senate. Background Photo “U.S. Capitol” by 1778011.

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