This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a graduate of the Duke University School of Medicine, was one of the most vocal critics of the decision by American officials to protect, more or less, China during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is, experts now agree, probable that the deadly virus came out of a Chinese lab that was working on procedures to make viruses, especially bat viruses, more lethal.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Paul said the next threat "very likely" will come from that nation because Chinese officials continue to manipulate those viruses.

The report said the Daily Mail revealed this week that Chinese experimenters are tinkering with a variety of pathogens that have a "high probability" of infecting people.

He said the actions are "incredibly dangerous."

And he suggested there should be an international treaty, or something close to it, to oversee and regulate research that carries such potential dangers.

"I think there is a lot of research where it is complicated and you would want scientists to help guide this," Paul told the publication.

Paul was among the early advocates for what the establishment, including Anthony Fauci, then Joe Biden's top medical adviser, were claiming was a "conspiracy" theory, that COVID-19 came out of a lab in Wuhan, China.

Now, of course, American medical experts, the FBI, and other government agencies believe that was correct all along.

Paul and Fauci clashed numerous times while Fauci was testifying before Congress and the now-retired Fauci at one point claimed that the senator didn't know what he was talking about.

Paul said in the interview that evidence now confirms the lab as the source, and he's stunned that the American government was funding work there.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology hasn't gotten American money since 2020, but the Biden administration spent three years before it could assemble an official proposal to suspend funding.

The report said it's estimated the U.S. has spent $100 million in the past decade funding research in China.

Paul said Fauci, who during his highly paid time in government was the chief of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, needs to face prosecution.

The evidence shows from 2015 and 2023, at least seven U.S. entities supplied NIH grant money to labs in China performing animal experiments, totaling $3,306,061. But Fauci claimed at the time his department "has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology."

But, the report said, emails confirmed he admitted: "scientists in Wuhan University are known to have been working on gain-of-function experiments to determine that molecular mechanisms associated with bat viruses adapting to human infection, and the outbreak originated in Wuhan."

The Government Accountability Office then determined the Wuhan Institute of Virology and Wuhan University did receive NIH funding, Paul confirmed.

He wrote to the DOJ calling for an investigation into Fauci's apparent lies under oath, and said Fauci "without question" should be jailed.

But he also said, citing partisan Attorney General Merrick Garland, "It's very difficult when you have an attorney general that's very partisan like Merrick Garland."

Paul said he believes there was a cover-up of the COVID-19 disaster.

"So some of them may not know each other... but there are dozens, if not hundreds, of people throughout our government that were involved in funding this research over time, and they're all now trying to cover their tracks," he charged.