Republican Senator Rand Paul has reiterated his view that Dr Anthony Fauci should face imprisonment, following a contentious Senate hearing and a subsequent appearance on MS NOW's "Morning Joe" programme. Paul was directly asked whether he still believed the former chief White House medical adviser should be jailed, continuing a long-running campaign in which he has accused Fauci of lying to Congress over issues including the origins of COVID-19 and US-funded research.

Paul, who chairs relevant Senate oversight efforts, has for years pressed Fauci over his congressional testimony denying that the National Institutes of Health funded "gain-of-function" research in Wuhan. The renewed comments come amid separate developments in which a former Biden administration COVID-19 response coordinator has acknowledged the pandemic's origin was "probably" a lab leak, a shift that has bolstered critics who accuse Fauci of misleading lawmakers.