In a video posting on Wednesday, Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, slammed the hysteria over the coronavirus and wondered when “flattening the curve” became “finding the curve.”
Portnoy posted a video to Twitter on Wednesday slamming the mission creep seen from the beginning of the coronavirus crisis to where we have gotten since. Originally, Portnoy pointed out, the nation instituted lockdowns to “flatten the curve” to keep hospitals from being overrun with coronavirus cases.
But, suddenly, the sports blog operator said, the policies have morphed into becoming some sort of permanent lockdown until a “cure” for coronavirus is found. A cure, Portnoy reminds his viewers, “is not a guarantee.”
Portnoy started his video saying, “Dr. Fauci… gets in front of the Senate, he’s like ‘we re-open the country too quick, everybody’s dead.’ Where did that come from? And the L.A. Mayor, ‘we’re not opening the city until we find a cure’? What? Find a cure? Who says we’re going to find a cure?”
Watch: NSFW
Emergency Press Conference – When Did Flattening The Curve Turn Into Finding The Cure pic.twitter.com/ZaSTxL6Tuc
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) May 14, 2020
“We haven’t found a cure to cancer,” Portnoy added. “It took AIDS twenty years, and whatever, do we even have a cure? So, the economy is just shut down?”
Portnoy noted that when the crisis first started the medical advisers said that we needed to make sure there were hospital beds for a possible influx of patients. But “we are there” and that goal has been met, the sports blogger said.
“We’re doing what you asked,” Portnoy said of those who want the country on lockdown, “but now you’re changing the rules,” he exclaimed.
Portnoy’s main concern, though, was how these lockdowns are now causing more harm than good by destroying the entire U.S. economy.
“Imagine working for a year, five years, ten years, two decades, grinding your fingers to the bone to build a business,” Portnoy ranted, “people have jobs and have worked their whole fucking life to put food on the table, to create a happy living. They’re just going to go out of business? They’re going to just wake up whenever this thing ends, whenever the mayors say ‘Oh, you can go back to work,’ work to what? Your company is going to be out of business.”
Portnoy said that we have come to a point where people need to be able to make intelligent choices. They need to be able to choose how they will protect themselves from the virus, but also make a choice on how to protect their livelihoods.
“If I’ve dedicated 20 years of my life [to my business],” Portnoy said, “I don’t want to start over. I’ll fucking deal with corona. You can’t just make everyone stay inside and basically start over. It’s insane.”
Portnoy insisted that shutting down the whole country for this virus is the wrong move.
“At least we have a chance if we go out with corona, like Switzerland and those places that just let it roll. We have NO chance if we don’t let people outside. This country’s going to be done-zo. No one’s going to have jobs, no one’s going to have businesses. It’s going to be done. It’s over. Let me roll the dice and play with corona. At least give me the choice. That’s all we want.”
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