Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) asked on Monday if Dr. Anthony Fauci will praise Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for having five times fewer coronavirus deaths in Florida than New York.
Paul, an ophthalmologist who recently recovered from the coronavirus, noted that despite having an “identical” number of per capita cases of the coronavirus, Florida has a fifth of the coronavirus deaths as New York.
“FL and NY have an identical number of per capita coronavirus infections, but FL has 5X less per capita deaths,” Paul wrote. “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
According to recent data, Florida has 487,124 coronavirus cases, with only 7,083 deaths. In contrast, New York has 421,008 coronavirus cases and 32,401 deaths.
Paul’s commentary arises as Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, praised New York for the state’s response to the coronavirus outbreak.
However, public officials and lawmakers had criticized New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) for his handling of the pandemic, especially when he ordered nursing homes to accept recovering coronavirus patients.
Despite the data showing that DeSantis’ actions have reduced coronavirus deaths, Fauci criticized the Florida governor’s move to reopen the state.
“Despite the guidelines and the recommendations to open up carefully and prudently, some states skipped over those and just opened up too quickly,” Fauci said in July. “Certainly Florida … I think jumped over a couple of checkpoints.”
DeSantis has rebuked Fauci’s criticism of his response to the coronavirus, saying in July, “I think there was really no justification to not move forward.”
Paul criticized Fauci during a hearing in May, charging that Fauci is not the “end all” authority on the coronavirus response.
“I don’t think you’re the one person that gets to make the decision,” Paul said. “We can listen to your advice, but there are people on the other sides saying that there’s not going to be a surge, and we can safely open the economy, and the facts will bear this out.”
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
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