Image: By The White House from Washington, DC - White House Coronavirus Update Briefing, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=89209076
by ALEC SCHEMMEL | The National Desk
WASHINGTON (TND) — Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, and Dr. Anthony Fauci clashed during a Wednesday Senate hearing over royalty payments to government scientists from pharmaceutical companies.
"We’ve been asking you and you refuse to answer whether anybody on the vaccine committees gets royalties from the pharmaceutical companies. I asked you last time and what was your response? ‘We don’t have to tell you,’" Paul said. "When we get in charge, we're gonna change the rules and you will have to divulge where you get your royalties from, from what companies and if anybody on the committee has a conflict of interest, we are going to learn about it. I promise you that."
Paul previously challenged Fauci during a June Senate hearing over the alleged lack of transparency from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where Fauci has worked for roughly 40 years, surrounding the royalty payments.
"Over the period of time from 2010 to 2016, 27,000, royalty payments were paid to 18,000 NIH employees. We know that not because you told us, but because we forced you to tell us through the Freedom of Information Act,” Paul told Fauci during the June hearing. “Over $193 million was given to these 18,000 employees.”
In October 2021, watchdog group Open The Books filed a federal lawsuit to obtain access to the disclosures, but the NIH redacted critical information from the records the agency ultimately provided to Open The Books, such as who the payments came from and how much was doled out.
READ MORE: "Watchdog says NIH has 'taxpayers in the dark' as scientists receive millions in royalties"
Fauci argued Wednesday he had no connection to any of the government's committees that approve or recommended vaccines.
"I don't really understand, with all due respect Senator," Fauci said. "They're not my committees."
Fauci and Paul also sparred Wednesday over why the federal government's vaccination guidelines don't account for natural immunity.
Paul brought forth a video from 2004, in which Fauci admits on live television "the best vaccination is to get infected yourself."
"So when you're trying to tell us that kid's need a third or fourth vaccine, are you including the variability or the variable of previous infection in the studies?" Paul said to Fauci.
"No, you're not. Because when you have approved vaccines in recent times, and the committees that have approved them for children don't report anything on hospitalization, or death or transmission," Paul continued. "They only report that if you give them the jab, they'll make antibodies. And you can give kid's hundreds of jabs and they'll make antibodies every time but that does not prove efficacy."
Paul ultimately accused Fauci of denying "the very fundamental premise of immunology" that previous infection provides immunity.
"It's not in any of your studies!" Paul exclaimed.