Sen. Rand Paul is blaming Dr. Anthony Fauci for the thousands of COVID-19 deaths that are happening monthly because of his emphasis on vaccines rather than other treatments.
"I would venture to say that thousands of people die in our country every month now from COVID because [Fauci’s] deemphasized the idea that there are therapeutics," the Kentucky Republican told his father, former Rep. Ron Paul, in an interview on the Ron Paul Liberty Report that was released on Monday.
The senator also said that Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as well as President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser, has had a "bias" toward vaccines for years, dating back to his work during the AIDS epidemic.
"I think Fauci is of the philosophy that vaccines are incredibly successful and are the way to go versus therapeutics," said Paul, who is an ophthalmologist. "So with regard to AIDS, he was involved as the AIDS epidemic came up, he wanted to develop a vaccine. There's nothing wrong with that. He wanted to develop a vaccine. Vaccines can be great for polio or smallpox. ... It didn't actually work for AIDS."
The senator has slammed Fauci often in recent months and has said he favors monoclonal antibodies as "one of the most promising treatments" for COVID.
Meanwhile, on Monday, Fauci told MSNBC that implementing a federal rule requiring vaccinations for people flying domestically would be "another incentive" to get more people to get their shots.
"If you want to do that with domestic flights, I think that’s something that seriously should be considered," he said.
Paul, meanwhile, has claimed that Fauci lies about how natural immunity is effective against the virus, telling Fox Business' Larry Kudlow this fall that Fauci "thinks it might slow down vaccination."
He also said on the program that he is "for people getting vaccinated, particularly people at risk, but the thing is, if you ignore naturally acquired immunity then you’re saying we don’t have enough people, you have to force it on younger people."
Paul recently told Newsmax that he thinks Fauci has become too powerful.
''You have to realize that when Fauci says that he is science and that we shouldn't challenge or question him, most of the things he gives edicts on are not based on science, they are actually public policy,'' Paul said on ''Eric Bolling: The Balance.'' ''It's a huge mistake to let one individual have that kind of power over the economy, or over science, or over public health.'