Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky grilled Dr. Anthony Fauci about government recommendations regarding COVID-19 booster shots for children during a Senate hearing Thursday, claiming Fauci’s approach was “conjecture.”

Paul lambasted Fauci, who serves as chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, after Fauci admitted “not enough data” had been gathered to conclude that booster shots reduced hospitalizations or deaths for children. Fauci also did not mention any studies that proved booster shots for children were needed.

WATCH:

“That’s not science, that’s conjecture, and we should not be making public policy on it,” Paul said after asking whether children needed as many as 100 booster shots. Children ages 0-17 comprise about 0.1% of deaths from COVID-19, according to data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Fauci told Paul that studies showed that receiving vaccines following a COVID-19 infection provided “the optimal degree of protection” for people.

“You can’t answer the question I asked,” Paul said. “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 you have so much wanted to protect everybody from all the data. Because we are not smart enough to look at the data.”

Fauci appeared virtually before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions after announcing he tested positive for COVID-19 Wednesday. In addition to being the chief medical advisor to the president, Fauci is also director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

Fauci did not respond to requests for comment from The Daily Caller News Foundation through the White House and NIAID. Paul did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TheDCNF.

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