Dr. Anthony Fauci hits back at Josh Rogin, argues that Chinese scientists involved are 'well-respected'

As Twitchy reported, both Sen. Rand Paul and Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin went after Dr. Anthony Fauci over the alleged gain of function research going on at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, funded in part by the NIH. Rogin put it pretty succinctly the other day:

Hey guys, @RandPaul was right and Fauci was wrong. The NIH was funding gain of function research in Wuhan but NIH pretended it didn't meet their "gain of function" definition to avoid their own oversight mechanism. SorryNotSorry if that doesn't fit your favorite narrative.

— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) July 20, 2021

Fauci has been making the media rounds and stopped by Fox News to talk to Neil Cavuto, who asked him about Rogin’s reporting.

Fauci is now on Fox justifying gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab and argues it was “highly recommended”

— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) July 23, 2021

Fauci: Funding the Wuhan lab was a “good and proper scientific decision”

— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) July 23, 2021

Some four million dead people beg to differ https://t.co/1tiZXGngB4

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) July 23, 2021

Fauci’s argument, essentially, is that the scientists doing the research are well-respected.

Speaking to @TeamCavuto, Dr. Fauci hits back at @JoshRogin and @RandPaul, saying that the Wuhan funding and gain of function research discussion is "more complicated than [what's being said]…Those scientists were well-respected in the scientific community internationally." pic.twitter.com/QMcwwo8laZ

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 23, 2021

Rogin responds:

Fauci is deflecting by attacking a straw man; nobody is saying the Chinese scientists are bad people. The fact is they can’t tell the truth or their government will jail them or worse. If Fauci doesn’t get that, he was even more naive about working in China than we thought. https://t.co/tNKXnRF2c3

— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) July 24, 2021

Fauci like many top government bureaucrats simply doesn’t get the real world. He operates in a bubble. His opinion of himself started out unjustifiably high. 18 months of fawning politicians and media has warped it further. The man is simply out of touch.

— StephenMills (@Stephengm99) July 24, 2021

Fauci crushed and dismissed Trump's conspiracy theory, but didn't downplay it… pic.twitter.com/rbeC0spxBf

— InMyHumbleOpinion (@IMHO1969) July 24, 2021

Good find.

What a lame excuse by Fauci. No where do you attack the scientist character or call them bad.

You can be a highly respected scientist worldwide and still make mistakes that lead to a lab leak. It’s a crying shame that congress hasn’t put Fauci up to much more scrutiny.

— Drew Hawk (@WeGotOneBich) July 24, 2021

Fauci is so obviously conflicted. Whether he did anything wrong or not how is he even still in this position?

— BadB0ySp00ky👻 (@BadB0ySp00ky) July 24, 2021

Fauci is not used to such scrutiny. He’s used to saying whatever the hell he wants to advance his agenda. Glad people are finally starting to hold him accountable

— Janie Scorpio (@ScorpioJanie) July 24, 2021

There is no reason on earth that lab should have been doing gain of function research. Fauci funded it because that research was banned in the U.S. He's clearly got a fetish for creating superviruses, and that makes him dangerous in my view.

— Samuel Culper 722 (@politiwars) July 24, 2021

Which is worse? He is lying or he is stupid?

— Voodoo 6 from JOC Inyanga (@6Voodoo) July 24, 2021

What an unimpressive fraud he is.

— Koozie McVulvasteen (@McVulvasteen) July 24, 2021

Remember when Fauci argued that if you were questioning him, you were essentially questioning science itself?

Related:

Josh Rogin thread pulls back curtain on how and why reporters dumped on lab leak theories (all while ‘pretending to be objective’) https://t.co/9yQTHxswuN

— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) May 29, 2021