Republican Senator Rand Paul, a prominent critic of anti-Covid measures such as masks and vaccines, admitted yesterday that his wife bought stock in a drugmaker selling a key Covid medication and that they failed to disclose it.
Kelley Paul bought stock in Gilead, maker of antiviral drug remdesivir, in February 2020. This was as government officials—if not the general public—were becoming aware of the likely scale of the brewing pandemic. The Pauls failed to disclose the investment until now, but they don't have much to worry about as the Department of Justice has shown no interest in enforcing laws on insider trading against other politicians who traded on early Covid briefings.
Remdesivir later became the first drug to be approved for treating Covid-19. Paul's filing with the Senate shows that between $1,000 and $15,000 of Gilead stock was purchased. The STOCK Act — which was enacted in 2012 to outlaw congressional insider trading, or the use of nonpublic information for one's financial benefit — requires trade disclosures within 45 days. Paul's reporting came 16 months late.
The financial disclosure was more than a year late because the initial filing wasn't properly transmitted
The Pauls' secret financial interest in a drug used to treat Covid cases would certainly help explain his disinterest in anything that reduces the number of them.
