Even though experts learned quickly lockdowns "really weren't changing anything" with the spread of COVID-19, progressives used the measure as a "political avenue to continue to push control," Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., who is also a physician, told Newsmax.
Murphy was responding to a Johns Hopkins University study showing lockdowns in spring 2020 did little to stem the spread of the virus.
"It was something called a meta-analysis, which is a study of other studies, so it gives it a lot more veracity about what its findings work, but have found out that despite all the things that we did because of the virus, we've affected the change very, very little," Murphy told Saturday's "Wake Up America."
According to the Johns Hopkins report, lockdowns in the spring of 2020 reduced COVID-19 mortality by only 0.2% in the U.S. and Europe but "imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted."
But still, the push for control continues, posing a serious health risk to Americans, Murphy continued.
"Nine million people never got cancer screenings," Murphy said. "We knew thousands of people died at home when they had angina rather than going to the emergency department with a heart attack. This is a lesson learned…we shouldn't be doing some things, like forced vaccination for kids, for example, which is a real pet peeve of mine."
Meanwhile, the response to the virus became a "kind of cult of personality" with Dr. Anthony Fauci, said Murphy.
"I'm a physician. I'm a colleague. His arrogance has led to so much distrust in the medical profession, and then it was the progressive left, that even though we know that this probably isn't doing anything, we're still going to force it. You know these little masks they wear that say I wear I care? You know, there's the most nauseating things I can think of … we all care. But there's also a point of balance. And as with anything that progressive left does not want balance. They want just their viewpoint. This is just another instance where they're pushing an agenda on the American people."
And then, in the halls of Congress, "the Democrats are wearing masks and Republicans generally are not," Murphy said. "It's just virtue signaling. If masks truly change things, I would be masking up and pushing them, but in some ways, not only does it delay the inevitable, it's just not changing anything. Look at states that have masked up and not masked up. There's no difference in mortality, morbidity, hospitalizations, or anything."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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