One of the many fears people have had with mask mandates is that the government never knows when to stop. If you give them an inch they’ll take 50 miles. National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins issued a recommendation that people now wear their masks inside their private homes to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul blasted the suggestion questioning not only the director’s sanity but his intelligence, “How can people who are so smart say such stupid things? There is no science to defend putting your kids in masks or parents wearing masks—no science whatsoever.”
Paul added, “If there were, we would be wearing masks for years and years because, for kids, the death rate is about the same as the seasonal flu. It may be less than the seasonal flu. So, is Francis Collins proposing that because the flu is with us forever that parents should be wearing masks around their kids that have the flu?”
“It is absolutely and utterly without scientific evidence! Now, they’re all freaking out right now about the Delta variant,” Paul continued. “One thing is—in all likelihood true—it is more transmissible, significantly more transmissible, but guess what? Every bit of evidence shows that it’s less deadly—significantly less deadly.”
Paul cited a study that the Public Health of England conducted where they looked at more than 92,000 cases. Paul explained, “If you were vaccinated and under 50, there were no deaths. If you were unvaccinated and under 50, .08%—still very, very small. So, it’s not an argument for not getting vaccinated. It’s an argument for not getting hysterical over the Delta variant.”