Animal Cruelty, Gain of Function Research, & the American Budget

Oh, Fauci, you're in trouble now!

Fauci has been, much to his own pleasure, ubiquitous over the last 18 months.  One finds it difficult to turn on the TV or log into social media without seeing his likeness gracing the headlines, memes, etc., and the opinions regarding his character and effectiveness are rarely moderate--he's either a god or the devil incarnate.  Personally, I'm confident he's just another member of America's ruling elite--what I like to call our unofficial aristocracy.  

His latest scandal stems from research done in Tunisia that included, how can I summarize this neatly, sacrificing beagles to sandflies.  Previously he faced stiff opposition when it was discovered that the origin of COVID-19 may be tied gain-of-function research in a Wuhan lab that the NIH funded under Fauci's leadership.  Besides his general hypocrisy and vacillation, which should be enough to discredit him, these two scandals have convinced many that Fauci is more evil genius than benevolent savior.

I'd like to share three quick questions that occurred to me when I heard this story.

Firstly, is this their way of getting rid of Fauci without dealing with the Wuhan lab?  In other words, is this a distraction?  There's a thin, fine line between being an informed citizen and a conspiracy nut, and our government's endless corruption and misinformation has made it even more difficult to maintain this balance.  The media normally runs point for them, so, whenever a scandal like this occurs, it's usually safe to assume that something even worse is being hidden (think Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky).  Are they trying to make Fauci disappear so people will stop asking questions about Wuhan?  I'm sure we'll never know.   

Secondly, does anyone else find it equally amusing and depressing that animal cruelty is taken way more seriously than endangering the lives of billions of human beings?  We've all heard it said that disaster relief drives bring in more money when showing images of distraught animals, and I think this story illustrates again our misplaced priorities in this nation.  Fauci has proven to be a dangerous, incompetent political puppet, but it takes pictures of tortured dogs to evince a reaction from the average American.  What a sad, backwards world it is.

Finally, why are we funding research in China and Tunisia?  People are caught up in an uproar about the unethical uses of American tax dollars, but nobody seems to be asking the simplest question--why are we funding any research in other countries?  As an American taxpayer I am as equally, or at least nearly as, upset about my money being used to fund any research as inhumane research.  We have become so desensitized to imbalanced budgets and national deficits that we no longer even consider how absurd it is that our money funds foreign armies, foreign research, etc.  Rand Paul, walking in his father's footsteps, is about the only politician who ever mentions fiscal responsibility anymore, and he does it simply to illustrate how ridiculous our spending has become.  When we no longer question the elaborate spending practices of our Federal government, we've already lost the battle.