Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., warned Thursday that gain-of-function research poses an existential threat to humanity, arguing there is "no good purpose" for scientists to manipulate pathogens and warning the experiments amount to scientists playing "Dr. Frankenstein."

Appearing on Newsmax's "The Record With Greta Van Susteren," Paul discussed his decision as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to subpoena former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci to testify before the panel later this month about the origins of COVID-19.

According to the senator, the hearing will examine the research that many Republicans believe contributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Explaining the practice, Paul said gain-of-function research involves taking components of different viruses, combining them, and growing them in human cells to determine whether they become more infectious.

"Gain of function just describes a type of experiment where what happens is you take one known virus and maybe one unknown virus," he said. "You take parts of them, put them together, and then grow them in human cells to see if they gain in function."

Paul again challenged Fauci's long-standing claim that researchers cannot call an experiment gain of function unless they know beforehand the virus will become more dangerous.

"Anthony Fauci has argued, well, if you don't know in advance they're going to gain in function, then you can't really call it gain of function," he said. "But they did know, and they continued to do these experiments in Wuhan, even when the evidence from the experiments was showing that it was gaining in function."

When Van Susteren asked whether there is any legitimate scientific justification for gain-of-function research, Paul dismissed the idea.

"I don't think there is," he said.

Paul noted Fauci argued in a 2011 opinion piece that "even if a pandemic should occur from gain-of-function research, that the knowledge is worth the risk," but said many scientists reject that conclusion.

"They've done things like take the avian flu, which doesn't go human to human well or at all, and they've put in eight mutations to make it transmissible, not only human to human, but through the air," he said.

"It's sort of like being Dr. Frankenstein and doing these kind of things. There is no good purpose for this. It's incredibly dangerous," he continued.

The Kentucky Republican warned that the potential consequences extend far beyond COVID-19, pointing to Ebola as an example.

"We have things like Ebola that aren't readily transmitted by aerosol," Paul said. "If you change it and mutate it on purpose to make it aerosolized … you would risk 50% of the planet dying."

"You would have people dying by the tens of thousands just from lack of doctors, lack of sanitation, lack of clean water," he added. "I mean, you would devastate the planet. So, we shouldn't be doing these experiments."

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