WATCH: Rand Paul slams Fauci for ‘not having any evidence’ to back Covid boosters for kids

"The government recommends a booster for children despite Fauci admittedly not having any evidence to support their decision," Paul said.

The exchange took place during another Senate committee hearing on the ongoing federal response to Covid-19. This is far from the first time the two men, both doctors, have come to disputes in the Senate chamber over Fauci's policies, and Paul's issues with them.

During the hearing Paul asked, "are you aware of any studies that show reduction in hospitalization or death for children who take a booster?"

To which Fauci answered, "right now there's not enough data that has been accumulated Senator poll to indicate that that's the case."'

Paul criticized the criteria, or distinct lack thereof, that Fauci and the Biden administration had been using to recommend the vaccine for children so young. The only studies that were presented to validate the child booster recommendation were antibody studies, which are dispositive.

The Covid-19 antibody studies showed a correlation between a booster and making antibodies. Paul asked of Fauci, "if I give a patient 10 mRNA vaccines and they make protein each time or they make antibodies each time is that proof that we should give 10 boosters. Dr. Fauci?"

Fauci scoffed, "No, I think that is somewhat of an absurd exaggeration."

"So that is the proof that you use, your committees use that! That's the only proof you have to tell children to take a booster is that they make antibodies. So it's not an absurdity."

"Where is the proof?" Paul asked.

Paul later cited studies from the CDC and Israel that indicated taking boosters is advisable for older folks, but that those same studies showed risk factors for children, especially males between the ages of 12 and 24. The boosters reportedly caused cases of myocarditis in roughly 80 out of a million in that demographic, Paul said.

"So there is risk and there are risks and you're telling everybody in America just blindly go out there because we made antibodies," Paul continued "that's not science. That's conjecture. And we should not be making public policy on it."

The adversarial exchange between Senator Paul and Fauci is consistent with previous encounters the two have had. Paul has been consistently skeptical of the "I am the Science" figurehead Fauci.

Last year Paul repeatedly grilled Fauci over the duplicitous description of "gain of function" research at the Wuhan lab. In January of this year Paul accused Fauci of deliberately smearing doctors who credibly pursued the lab leak theory of the Covid-19 virus. Then in March, in response to an aggregation of discrediting accusations towards Fauci, Paul called for his job to be eliminated altogether.

"You're not willing to be honest with the American people," Paul said of Fauci on Thursday. Paul ended with a rhetorical question over how many children are actually dying from Covid-19 that summarizes Paul's central thesis on Fauci.

"The question I asked is how many kids are dying? And how many kids are going to the hospital who've already had COVID? The answer may be zero. But you're not even giving us the data... because we're not smart enough to look at the data."