Sen. Rand Paul expressed that Florida is doing a better job handling the coronavirus in terms of “per capita deaths” and wondered to his Twitter followers whether White House coronavirus response team member Dr. Anthony Fauci would acknowledge the data.
“FL and NY have an identical number of per capita coronavirus infections but FL has 5X less per capita deaths,” the Kentucky Republican tweeted Monday. “Will Dr. Fauci be praising @GovRonDeSantis’ response to the pandemic? Will he point out that @NYGovCuomo’s response allowed a fivefold greater per capita death rate?”
FL and NY have an identical number of per capita coronavirus infections but FL has 5X less per capita deaths. Will Dr. Fauci be praising @GovRonDeSantis’ response to the pandemic? Will he point out that @NYGovCuomo’s response allowed a fivefold greater per capita death rate?
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) August 3, 2020
Data from Johns Hopkins University shows that 33 people per 100,000 of Florida’s population have died from the coronavirus, while that number per 100,000 stands at 167 for New York. The data also confirms Paul’s claim that New York and Florida have a similar number of per capita infections.
Despite the discrepancy, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has been widely criticized for his virus response plan, while New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, has been praised by many in the media and in the public health arena, including by Fauci.
“We know that, when you do it properly, you bring down those cases. We have done it. We have done it in New York,” Fauci said in an interview last month.
“New York got hit worse than any place in the world. And they did it correctly by doing the things that you’re talking about.”
Paul, who is a doctor himself, took issue with that statement and cited the per capita death rate at the time, arguing that New York was not handling the situation as well as Fauci suggested.
“Paging Dr. Fauci!” Paul tweeted. “According to JHU, NY’s per capita death rate is more than 2X greater than Italy Spain & Britain & more than 8X worse than Florida & 10X worse than Texas. For you to say NY got it done correctly disregards the facts & calls your judgement into question.”
Paging Dr. Fauci! According to JHU, NY’s per capita death rate is more than 2X greater than Italy Spain & Britain & more than 8X worse than Florida & 10X worse than Texas. For you to say NY got it done correctly disregards the facts & calls your judgement into question.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 20, 2020
When given the opportunity to voice his concerns to Fauci directly at a Senate hearing in late June, Paul criticized Fauci for advising against reopening schools.
“We shouldn’t presume that a group of experts somehow knows what’s best for everyone,” Paul said. “Only decentralized power and decision-making based on millions of individualized situations can arrive at what risk and behaviors each individual will choose. That’s what America was founded on, not a herd with Washington telling us what to do and like sheep, we blindly follow.”
Paul continued: “Dr. Fauci, every day we seem to hear from you things we can’t do. But when you’re asked, ‘Can we go back to school?’? I don’t hear much certitude at all. ‘Well, maybe.’ ‘It depends.’ Guess what? It’s rare for kids to transmit this. I don’t hear that coming from you. All I hear is, ‘We can’t do this, we can’t do that, we can’t play baseball.”
Story cited here.
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