Senator Rand Paul has introduced legislation to eliminate an entire federal agency, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, in order to oust its longtime director, Dr Anthony Fauci.
Mr Paul, a former ophthalmologist, has frequently promoted conspiracy theories which cast Dr Fauci as a villain who is responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic, and has blamed the 81-year-old immunologist — who was appointed to run NIAID in 1984 by then-president Ronald Reagan — for public health measures imposed by state and local officials during the pandemic.
