Two years after the first lockdowns began crippling America, Republican Sen. Rand Paul has a simple slogan for the future: never again.
To do that, power needs to be taken away from Dr. Anthony Fauci, Paul wrote in an Op-Ed for Fox News.
“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,” Paul wrote.
Paul has legislation to do just that.
“To ensure that ineffective, unscientific lockdowns and mandates are never foisted on the American people ever again, I will introduce an 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,” he continued.
Paul said the time has come to end long-term bureaucrats doing as they please with no oversight.
“Each of these three institutes will be led by a director who is appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate for a five-year term. 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,” he explained.
“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,” he wrote.
Paul noted that the response to COVID-19 caused vast damage to society and America’s children.
“We lost more than individuals. We lost our freedoms. Our liberties. Our vibrant small town Main Streets. Our children’s growth and learning. For two years our lives were held captive by petty tyrants and power-hungry bureaucrats.”
He said children were marred by lockdowns and “the notion that they MUST wear a mask for eight hours a day … created psychological issues and inhibited communication between students and teachers. Keeping kids out of school clearly did far more harm than good. And the same can be said for masks.”
Paul claimed there was a cost to Fauci’s demand that Americans wear cloth masks as if they would prevent the virus from spreading.
“Misinformation can cost lives if the government convinces 80-year-olds to wear useless cloth masks while taking care of spouses with COVID,” he wrote, noting that Fauci and the slavish devotion of the media muzzled the debate needed to arrive at the truth.
“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.’”
Paul wrote that vast power has yielded vast arrogance.
“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,” he explained. “If Fauci was simply one family doctor in Peoria, his mistakes would not be so catastrophic. But since Fauci is allowed to be a medical czar for the whole country, his errors are amplified throughout the land.”
Paul said one man’s pride and love of power have done too much damage to be allowed to continue without the changes Paul’s legislation proposes.
“When Fauci misinforms the public that cloth masks work, he risks the health of anyone who believes a cloth mask will protect them when caring for a spouse or relative with COVID. When Fauci decides that he alone will define and fund dangerous ‘gain-of-function’ research, his disregard for the possibility of a lab leak is felt worldwide,” he wrote.
“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.”