That the coronavirus lockdowns have come with massive costs is not up for debate. But are they worth it?
Tucker Carlson posed that question on his self-titled Fox News program Monday night, saying that the coronavirus “isn’t nearly as deadly as we thought” in a monologue that slammed the lockdowns as arbitrary and destructive, Fox reported.
Carlson goes rogue
In his monologue Monday night, Carlson said that it is troubling that politicians are “bullying forward” instead of asking whether the lockdowns are justified, according to Fox. He pointed to two Bakersfield, California doctors whose analysis of health data led them to conclude that they are not.
Carlson also played a clip of Dr. Daniel Erickson saying that the chance of dying from the coronavirus in the state is lower than a tenth of a percentage point.
“These are serious people who’ve done this for a living for decades. They have in their hands the largest currently available data sets on this question,” Carlson said, according to Fox. “And the question they’re asking after analyzing all of those numbers: Are the lockdowns worth it? So what is the answer to that?”
Carlson also alleged that politicians are not bothering to explain the rationale for the lockdowns because “there is none,” arguing that the “curve” is being flattened because “the virus just isn’t nearly as deadly as we thought it was.”
“This is insanity”
The Fox host has repeatedly criticized the draconian lockdowns that have wiped the U.S. economy and left 26 million Americans out of work, calling them “the largest and most expensive experiment ever” and an opportunity for authoritarians to seize power over American citizens. He has been particularly critical of attempts by those in power to squelch dissent.
On Monday night’s episode, Carlson went on to slam the lockdowns as rooted in whim, rather than solid science, and lamented their drastic consequences, pointing to the ironic cost of banning “non-essential” medical care: many hospitals, which were never overwhelmed with patients, are now furloughing staff.
“This is insanity. It weakens our health care system. Its effects will last for many years. That’s all from the lockdown,” the Tucker Carlson Tonight anchor said, according to Fox.
Perhaps most disturbing of all: the lockdowns have seemingly no end date. Carlson, for his part, criticized the arbitrary timelines being pushed by many leaders, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, who speculated that normal life may never return, and those looking to a vaccine as the only way out — a goal that may never be reached, Carlson said, noting that there’s still no vaccine for SARS. (There has never been an approved coronavirus vaccine, according to Business Insider.)
“The striking thing is, the science has not changed that much since [SARS],” the Fox host added Monday. “Unfortunately, American politics have changed a lot. And that’s the difference.”
Indeed, given the power politicians are wielding over Americans’ lives, what is their reason for continuing this nonsense? If there is none, then Americans have a right to know.
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