(Joshua Paladino, Liberty Headlines) Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., wrote that Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx “seek to corral our freedom” and keep lockdowns in place “until there’s nothing to reopen.”
The Republican congressmen argue that the long-term negative economic, social and health effects of lockdowns and house arrest far outweigh any positive health benefits, in an op-ed for USA Today.
The libertarian Paul is in a particularly unique position to question the so-called pandemic experts’ opinions as he is, himself, a medical doctor and a coronavirus survivor.
At first, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, pushed mandatory lockdowns in an attempt to “flatten the curve” of infections so that medical services would not be overwhelmed. These policy prescriptions were based on flawed data.
Yet, Fauci won’t back down. He said at a Senate committee hearing last week, without providing evidence, that reopening would “result in needless suffering and death.”
These doomsday predictions have not materialized in states that have begun to reopen.
Paul and Biggs said Fauci has simply ignored the “countless stories of needless suffering and death produced by Fauci’s one-size-fits-all approach to public health.”
“It’s inconvenient from a societal standpoint, from an economic standpoint to go through this,” Fauci said, failing to realizing that inconvenient has meant “deadly” in many cases.
Fauci admitted that he doesn’t “give advice about economic things” during the Senate hearing.
“I don’t get advice about anything other than public health,” he said.
But Paul and Biggs wondered whether he has considered all dimensions of the public health crisis from lockdowns.
“We are seeing hospitals and medical groups having to close because they couldn’t treat patients,” they wrote. “The very foundation of our medical care system has been rocked—not solely because of the virus, but also because of the response to the virus.”
Paul and Biggs advise a new approach that is tailored to accommodate different sections of the country: precautions for elderly people and the immunocompromised, and freedom for healthy adults and children.
“President Trump has expressed a desire to restore our economic greatness and the positives that come with it—including better public health—by opening up our communities,” they wrote. “We must forge ahead even as Fauci tries to brush away the optimism of the president and the American people.”
