WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious disease expert, sparred with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., at a hearing Tuesday after Paul attacked him for appearing to disagree with scientists who said the coronavirus originated in a lab in China.

"What happens when he gets out and accuses me of things that are completely untrue is that all of a sudden that kindles the crazies out there, and I have threats upon my life, harassment of my family and my children, with obscene phone calls because people are lying about me," Fauci said at the Senate hearing.

The two men have had tense exchanges at previous hearings about the coronavirus.

Fauci blasted Paul, who was an ophthalmologist before he was elected to Congress, for making political attacks against him, noting that a man who was arrested Dec. 21 while traveling from Sacramento, California, was alleged to have told police that he was headed to Washington, D.C., to kill Fauci. The man had an AR-15 rifle in his vehicle, along with magazines of ammunition, police said.