Misinformation is much more destructive when it emanates from a monopolistic "Ministry of Truth."

This week, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) and the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Anthony Fauci squared off in the public arena yet again.

The two have frequently sparred over pandemic policy in Congressional committee hearings over the past year and a half, and their debates have often been contentious. But this interaction involved a particularly frazzled Fauci. In the brief exchange, Fauci looked around for assistance in the room, called Paul a liar, and shouted "you don't know what you're talking about!" as Paul proceeded to question him.

In his opening statement, Paul referenced an academic paper that further calls into question the origins of the COVID-19 variant that upended the world. "We hypothesize that the direct progenitor of SARS-CoV may have originated after sequential recombination events between the precursors of these SARSr-CoVs," stated the numerous scientists and doctors who authored the research.