Rand Paul to Fauci: ‘I promise you that the public will learn where you get your money from’
Fauci and other government vaccine regulators like the NIH deny receiving royalty payments from Big Pharma. But information disclosed through a FOIA request found that $350 million in royalty payments were paid to NIH employees over the past decade
Senator Rand Paul sparred with NIAID Director Anthony Fauci during a controversial congressional hearing and warned that he would be forced to disclose the royalties Fauci received from drug companies during the coronavirus pandemic.
During a hearing held by the health committee that examined the administration’s response to the monkeypox outbreak, the senator harshly attacked Fauci for refusing to reveal whether he and others received money from pharmaceutical companies for the distribution of the corona vaccine.
“We asked you, and you refused to answer whether the vaccination committees receive royalties from the pharmaceutical companies,” Paul told Fauci.
“I asked you last time, and what was your response? ‘We don’t have to tell you’. We requested documents through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and what did you say? ‘We’re not going to tell you.'”
“But I’ll tell you this, when we get to it, we’re going to change the rules, and you’re going to have to disclose where you get your royalties from, which companies, and if anyone on the committee has a conflict of interest, we’re going to learn about it. I promise you that.” Paul added
Fauci, who got angry, responded by claiming that the advisory committees of the FDA and the CDC – and not him – are responsible for vaccine approval procedures.
“They are not my committees,” Fauci said.
Paul tried to repeat his position, but Senator Bob Casey, Democrat, chairman of the Subcommittee on Children and Families, silenced him.
Paul previously attacked Fauci for receiving royalties at a hearing in June, after new information was revealed through a FOIA request that showed Fauci and other government regulators had received more than $350 million in secret royalties from drug companies over the past decade. .
“According to the regulations, people who receive royalties are not required to disclose them, not even in their financial report,” Fauci then defended himself to Paul.
The non-profit organization ‘Open The Books’ concluded that between 2010 and 2016, approximately 27,000 royalty payments were made to approximately 1,800 NIH employees (headed by Fauci) totaling $350 million.
“Because these payments enrich the agency and its scientists, any royalty payment could be used as a potential conflict of interest and should be disclosed,” wrote Open The Books co-founder and CEO Adam Andrzejewski.
“The NIH is a revolving door of tens of billions of dollars in government grants along with hundreds of millions of dollars in private royalty payments – not transparent,” he concluded.
? Did the article interest you?