Fauci fires back at Cruz over COVID claims about Chinese lab

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Anthony Fauci is blasting Sen. Ted Cruz for suggesting that Fauci be investigated for statements he made about COVID-19. Fauci is the government’s top infectious diseases expert as well as President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser. He says the GOP criticism is an attack on science. Cruz and some other Republicans have accused Fauci of lying to Congress when he denied that the National Institutes of Health funded a type of virus research at a lab in Wuhan, China. Cruz and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul say an October letter from NIH to Congress contradicts Fauci. But no clear evidence or scientific consensus exists that the research in question was funded by NIH.