And Dr. Anthony Fauci needs to stop his deception. Fact: Dr. Anthony Fauci, without a doubt, knew the National Institutes of Health (NIH) granted funds for gain-of-function research to the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab.

It's no secret that gain-of-function research has been deemed a controversial practice since its beginning. However, that hasn't stopped the NIH from approving funding for it abroad and in the United States under Dr. Fauci's watch.

For those who are not familiar with gain-of-function research, it is a type of research that involves juicing up naturally occurring animal viruses to infect humans.

Time after time, Dr. Fauci has refused to take ownership of lying to Congress about the funding.

During a recent U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pension (HELP) Committee hearing, I asked Dr. Fauci a simple question: "Knowing that it is a crime to lie to Congress, do you wish to retract your statement of May 11, 2021? Do you still claim that NIH never funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan?"

For instance, Dr. Ralph Baric, a U.S. virologist, collaborated with Dr. Shi Zhengli of the Wuhan Institute of Virology to study bat and human coronaviruses dating back to 2015.

The scientists took bat virus spike-protein genes and recombined them into the backbone of the deadly SARS virus and used the human-engineered, juiced-up virus to infect human respiratory cells.

Guess who funded the gain-of-function research: The National Institutes of Health under Dr. Fauci.

Richard Ebright, the laboratory director for the Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers University, confirmed that the NIH funds for Dr. Baric and Dr. Shi met the exact definition of gain-of-function research, saying, "The work is far outside the bounds of normal biomedical research."

In 2017, Dr. Shi acknowledged in her research papers that Dr. Fauci and NIH did in fact give her grants for gain-of-function research.

This past June, emails obtained by the Freedom of Information Act show Dr. Fauci did know about it. In one particular exchange, Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, which received grant funding for the Wuhan Institute of Virology, thanked Dr. Fauci for pushing back on the speculation that the coronavirus leaked from the lab and instead evolved naturally. Undoubtedly, Dr. Fauci knew about funding for gain-of-function research. No wonder the American people are hesitant to trust someone in a position of power like Dr. Fauci, who withheld prior knowledge to protect his position.

Due to Dr. Fauci's lack of transparency, I sent a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate his testimony on May 11, 2021, in which he lied before Congress.

So why does Dr. Fauci continue to deny it despite evidence showing otherwise?

It's evident that Dr. Fauci doesn't want to acknowledge funding this dangerous type of research, in this case gain-of-function research.

Dr. Fauci is obfuscating the truth and trying to cover up for the fact that he lied and got caught. I won't let him get away with this and will continue to shine a light on this issue.

Rand Paul is a U.S. senator representing Kentucky. @SenRandPaul