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Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., along with Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., said in an op-ed Thursday that the coronavirus lockdown recommendations of Dr. Anthony Fauci have “emasculated” the health care system and “ruined” the economy.
“Fauci and company have relied on models that were later found to be deficient. He even has suggested that he can’t rely on any of the models, especially if the underlying assumptions are wrong,” the pair wrote in an op-ed for USA Today. “Yet, Fauci persists in advocating policies that have emasculated the medical care system and ruined the economy.”
They pointed to Fauci's testimony last week before a Senate committee that opening too soon would “result in needless suffering and death.” “What about the countless stories of needless suffering and death produced by Fauci’s one-size-fits-all approach to public health?” Paul and Biggs shot back.
They called for policies based on trusting the risk assessment of the American people rather than a federal government mandate.
“Freedom allows us to judge the risk and reward and determine a course we think best,” the lawmakers wrote. “If we feel going to a certain retailer, barbershop, restaurant, or some other business is risky, we have the judgment to decide to not go there. If we want to stay home, we can.”
'DR. FAUCI, WE'D LIKE A SECOND OPINION': JOB CREATORS NETWORK CRIES FOUL ON LOCKDOWNS
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and an early prominent face in the White House Coronavirus Task Force, testified before the Senate on May 12 that reopening the economy before certain "checkpoints" set up in the Trump administration's coronavirus recovery plan are met could bring "suffering and death" and “turn the clock backwards.” He called out the effects of reopening schools too early, in particular.
"Depending on the dynamics of an outbreak in a particular region, state, city or area, that would really determine the speed and the pace with which one does reenter or reopen," Fauci said. "If some areas – cities states or what have you – jump over those barriers, checkpoints and prematurely open up without having the capability of being able to respond effectively, and efficiently, my concern is that we will start to see little spikes that might turn into outbreaks."
Fauci resisted pressure to rip on the Trump administration's response to the pandemic in his planned remarks, instead emphasizing efforts by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop vaccines and other medical means to fight the coronavirus.
Paul got into a dustup with Fauci during the testimony over his call for caution with reopening schools.
RAND PAUL DINGS FAUCI TESTIMONY, TELLS HIM 'YOU ARE NOT THE END ALL'
"The history of this will be wrong prediction after wrong prediction after wrong prediction," Paul said, mentioning, among several other examples, Sweden, which left its schools open. "I don't think you're an end-all, I don't think you're the one person that gets to make a decision."
"I have never made myself out to be the end-all and only voice in this," Fauci responded. "I'm a scientist, a physician and a public health official. I give advice, according to the best scientific evidence."
He emphasized that he only gives advice about public health, not "economic things."
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Fauci, during that hearing, continued emphasizing that it is not clear children are generally immune from the harmful effects of the coronavirus: "We should be humble about what we don't know. And I think that falls under the fact that we don't know everything about this virus, and we really got to be very careful, particularly when it comes to children. Because the more and more we learn, we're seeing things about what this virus can do that we didn't see from the studies in China or in Europe."
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