Doctor Anthony Fauci’s longtime rival Senator Rand Paul is blaming the disease expert for thousands of deaths related to Covid-19.

Fox News reports:

“I would venture to say that thousands of people die in our country every month now from COVID because [Fauci’s] deemphasized the idea that there are therapeutics,” Paul, who is also a physician, said in an interview on the Ron Paul Liberty Report published Monday.

Paul has previously said that monoclonal antibodies “are one of the most promising treatments for the virus” after a person has been infected, but that misinformation on the antibody treatment plagues “government bureaucrats.”

“Recent data showed that monoclonal antibody treatment cuts the risk of death and hospitalization by 70% in high-risk patients and reduces the chance of infection among a household by 80%,” Paul wrote in a September op-ed. “Monoclonal antibodies have only just begun to be mentioned by the mainstream media, and misinformation still plagues government bureaucrats when discussing this scientifically-backed treatment.”

Fauci has previously noted that monoclonal antibodies are a “much underutilized intervention” for COVID-19, but such therapies are often dwarfed by his focus on vaccines.

Senator Paul and Dr. Fauci have engaged in repeated tense exchanges on Capitol Hill regarding Fauci’s handling of the Coronavirus pandemic.