Social Media Erupts In Calls To ‘#ArrestFauci’ As Doctor Accused Of Lying, Funding ‘Cruel’ Puppy Testing

“#ArrestFauci” trended on Twitter Sunday afternoon as Dr. LAnthony Fauci, one of the top officials at the National Institute of Health (NIH), received a wave of backlash following several revelations about the agency.

Fauci is the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden and serves as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of 27 agencies making up the NIH. As director of the NIAID, Fauci is the chief U.S. official on the study and handling of infectious diseases.

On Wednesday, the NIH admitted in a letter to lawmakers that U.S. taxpayers funded research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) that led to the creation of a more severe strain of bat coronavirus. The NIH also admitted that its grantee that funded the research, EcoHealth Alliance, violated the terms of its grant by failing to report the outcome of the research. The WIV is one of the chief suspects for the origin of COVID-19.

In a May Senate hearing, Fauci claimed that the NIH “has not ever and does not now fund gain of function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.” The NIH admission contradicts Fauci’s claim and undermines his past support for EcoHealth and its president, Peter Daszak.

On Sunday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) called on Fauci to answer for a report that the NIH funded experiments on dozens of beagle puppies in a lab in Tunisia, North Africa. The report, released by the investigative group White Coat Waste Project, alleges that scientists infected 44 puppies with disease-causing parasites for experimental drug testing.

The lawmakers’ letter describes the research as “costly, cruel, and unnecessary.” The letter continues:

According to documents obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request by taxpayer watchdog group White Coat Waste Project, and subsequent media coverage, from October 2018 until February 2019, NIAID spent $1.68 million in taxpayer funds on drug tests involving 44 beagle puppies. The dogs were all between six and eight months old. The commissioned tests involved injecting and force-feeding the puppies an experimental drug for several weeks, before killing and dissecting them.

Of particular concern is the fact that the invoice to NIAID included a line item for “cordectomy.” As you are likely aware, a cordectomy, also known as “devocalization,” involves slitting a dog’s vocal cords in order to prevent them from barking, howling, or crying. This cruel procedure — which is opposed with