HHS Secretary Azar Issues Harsh Rebuke to Latest Lockdowns

Coronavirus numbers are spiking mightily around the country, forcing state and local officials to take drastic action.

This was something that many medical experts predicted would occur.  As cooler temperatures arrive throughout much of the country, Americans are spending more time indoors and in generally closer quarters.  For a virus that spreads the most easily via respiratory droplets, these are primo conditions.

And, we must also not overlook the general COVID fatigue that Americans are facing, as they allow their desire for normalcy to push them toward riskier behaviors.

Amid this latest jump in numbers, cities such as Chicago are looking to slip back into harsh lockdowns…something that the Health and Human Services Secretary isn’t all too fond of.

On Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said that science and data “simply do not support the notion of locking down the country,” and that colleges, children in K-12 schools, air travel, healthcare settings, and “normal workplaces” are not things that cause “major spread of disease.”

Azar said, “I do think we should be driven by science and data and the facts here, and they simply do not support the notion of locking down the country, sheltering in place. You know, it’s important the American people know the facts, and the simple facts are that our colleges are not mechanisms for major spread of disease. Our kids in K-12 are not mechanisms of major — we’re not seeing those as settings for major spread of disease. Our normal workplaces are not settings for major spread of disease. Air travel is not a setting for that. Healthcare work is — our healthcare settings, going to the doctor has not been a major vector of disease.”

Azar would go on to state that our smaller, indoor gatherings are likely what’s fueling the virus, (as predicted earlier by several experts), as we generally don’t fond ourselves wearing masks or keeping our distance when gathered among close friends and family.