Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is calling new statewide coronavirus lockdowns “completely arbitrary.”
Paul was asked during a Fox Business interview on Thursday morning about New York City closing schools down again and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D) new three-week ban on indoor dining services and in-person high school and college classes.
This week, the Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association sued Whitmer ahead of the new three-week shutdown that started on Wednesday. The lawsuit read, “It is legal to get a tattoo or haircut but not eat a meal indoors at a restaurant.”
“Let’s hope, in this case, the courts will intervene,” Paul said. “I’ve been calling my governor for months, DWP, drunk with power, because he’s taken this power without any consent from the legislature.”
He then called the lockdowns “arbitrary.”
“They’re completely arbitrary. They’re not based on any kind of science. There is really very little objective science to prove that any of this works.”
Watch Paul’s interview below:
Paul also took aim at cloth face masks, calling them a “theater.”
“If you look at the cloth masks, 97% of virus particles go through cloth masks, so we’re kidding ourselves, and what it’s doing is it’s detracting from the one thing that could save us and could really help us and that’s the vaccine,” he said.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a cloth mask “offers some protection to you too” but “how well it protects you from breathing in the virus likely depends on the fabrics used and how your mask is made (e.g. the type of fabric, the number of layers of fabric, how well the mask fits).”
With Thanksgiving approaching, state and local leaders have put out statements urging people not to have large gatherings in an effort to combat the coronavirus.
Even President-elect Joe Biden (D) has shared he will be limiting his Thanksgiving gathering to three people.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) said this week that the state will “hit reset, re-enacting the most heightened level of statewide public health restrictions,” starting Monday. This is among other states that have issued tighter restrictions.