Kentucky Senator Rand Paul said "no science" is able to corroborate mask mandates across the country, warning Americans that "submission" is the real aim of public health officials.
The Republican senator on Saturday reiterated remarks he made to Fox Business Thursday that "there's no science to keeping schools closed, and there's actually no good science to keeping restaurants closed, in fact there's no good science that anything we've done has changed the trajectory" of the pandemic.
Speaking with Breitbart News at the Turning Point USA convention—a gathering of young conservatives—in West Palm Beach, Florida, Paul said minor health precautions as simple as washing one's hands and keeping socially distant have made "no difference" in slowing the spread of coronavirus.
Paul, who practiced ophthalmology for 18 years before becoming a senator in 2010, ridiculed government mandates and just about any other public health measure taken since the start of the pandemic in March. Previous reports have noted that Paul's medical certification is contested by some national ophthalmology board members.
He warned young Americans their high school graduation ceremonies and possibly their 10-year wedding anniversaries a decade from now will be banned by the government if "we're not careful" to protect our individual freedoms today.
"Every one of the mandates—and you look in country after country, state after state — you look at when the mask mandates went in—the incidents went up exponentially after the mandates. Restaurants, nobody can eat in a restaurant, there's no science behind any of that," Paul told Breitbart's editor-in-chief, who mocked masks as "face diapers."
Regardless of Paul's remarks, the federal government that employs him does not agree with his anti-mask sentiment. "Wearing a cloth face mask, practicing social distancing, and washing your hands are good practices that help protect us and our neighbors from COVID-19 as our economy reopens," the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) tells Americans in a statement issued this summer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also put out similar warnings to health-conscious citizens looking to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Paul embraced the Breitbart editor's mockery of wearing masks, noting later in the interview, "It's like wearing your underwear. You might as well cut your underwear up and wear your underwear as protection. It doesn't work."
"None of it really makes any sense, and there's no epidemiological evidence. You know, it's like, 'Wash your hands, stand six feet apart,'" Paul continued. "There's no evidence that that slowed down the [spread]. The trajectory of the virus hasn't been altered at all by any of these things."
Paul has latched onto Trump's unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud, telling Fox Business viewers this past week, "if you want elections to be legitimate, you must punish those who committed fraud."
Newsweek reached out to Paul's office for additional remarks Sunday afternoon but did not hear back by the time of publishing.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Benjamin Fearnow is a reporter based out of Newsweek's New York City offices. He was previously at CBS and Mediaite ... Read more
