Rand Paul also confronts on vaccine royalties for FDA panel

Art Moore
WND News Center

One day after the nation learned he had tested positive for COVID-19, the government’s quadrupled-boosted pandemic adviser was confronted in a Senate hearing by his nemesis, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

Pressed on the safety and efficacy of COVID vaccines, Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted Thursday there were no studies to support the claim that booster shots would reduce the risk of hospitalization and death in children.

And Fauci refused to answer whether or not members of the FDA vaccine advisory board were receiving royalty payments from pharmaceutical companies.

As WND reported in May, over a 10-year period, the National Institutes of Health, agency scientists and executives such as Fauci received a total of $350 million in royalty payments from third parties, such as pharmaceutical companies, according to government documents obtained through a lawsuit. The NIH documents are heavily redacted, and only the number of payments each scientist received is disclosed along with the aggregate amount per NIH agency. The amount of the individual payments is blacked out.

On Thursday, Paul asked Fauci if he could state that he has “not received a royalty from any entity that [he] ever oversaw the distribution of money and research grants.”

“Everybody on the vaccine committee – have any of them ever received money from the people who make vaccines?” the senator continued. “Can you tell me that? Can you tell me if anybody on the vaccine approval committees ever received any money from the people who make the vaccines?”

Fauci interrupted: “Sound bite number one: Are you going to let me answer a question?

“Let me give you some information,” Fauci continued. “First of all, according to the regulations, people who receive royalties are not required to divulge them even on their financial statement according to the Bayh Dole Act.”

The law allows individuals to own inventions derived from government-funded research.

Fauci said that between 2015 and 2020, he personally received only small payments for the monoclonal antibodies his lab created.

“During that period of time, my royalties ranged from $21 a year to $7,700 a year and the average per year was $191.46,” Fauci told the senators.

Paul asked Fauci if he could cite any studies that show COVID booster shots reduce hospitalization and death in children.

Fauci could not.

“Right now there’s not enough data that has been accumulated, Senator Paul to indicate that that’s the case,” he said.

“I believe that the recommendation that was made was based on the assumption that if you look at the morbidity and mortality of children within each of the age groups, you know, zero to 5, 5 to 11 …

Paul interrupted.

“So, there are no studies – and Americans should all know this – there are no studies on children showing a reduction in hospitalization or death with taking a booster,” the senator emphasized.