Latest

Ben Carson trends as know-it-all pearl-clutchers go nuts over testing comment

December 22, 2021 | | Print Article

Get the latest BPR news delivered free to your inbox daily. SIGN UP HERE

Former Trump era HUD director Dr. Ben Carson is under fire for adopting the idea that, given the Omicron variant’s reportedly drastically reduced lethality and drastically increased transmissibility, America needs less testing, not more.

Speaking on Fox News’ “Hannity” late Tuesday, he pushed back on President Joe Biden’s announcement earlier that afternoon that he’s ordered 500 million additional testing kits to fight off the latest coronavirus variant.

“The Omicron variant is not very virulent. I mean, you may get a sniffle and maybe a slight cough. You’re not going to be very sick. And it’s going to spread very, very rapidly. Pretty soon everyone’s going to have it,” Carson said.

“I predict that with all the testing that we’re going to be doing, we’re going to have massive numbers of people who test positive, and this administration will have no idea what to do with them.”

This simple statement triggered massive backlash from the left.

Look:

It appears few of his critics actually listened to him all the way through.

The problem, he argued, is that mass testing will lead to mass asymptomatic positives given the Omicron variant’s enhanced transmissibility. This will in turn needlessly spur panic and use up vital hospital resources.

This isn’t to say that nobody should be tested. Carson’s proposal is for only those with serious symptoms to be tested.

The asymptomatic, like say Center for the Study of Partisan and Ideology president Richard Hanania, shouldn’t.

“I personally think that we should seriously give thought to not testing people who are asymptomatic. I mean, like I said, we’re going to end up with a real problem. We’re going to have massive numbers of people who test positive. What are we going to do? We’re going to shut everything down?” Carson continued.

“It just doesn’t make any sense, and particularly when you’re dealing with something that doesn’t make people very sick. We need to be particularly concerned about our elderly people and our people who have a lot of comorbid conditions, and we need to direct our attention to them.”

He also argued for the Biden administration to spend more time promoting therapeutics.

“We also need to be looking at therapeutics. You know, we have the Merck antiviral, we have the Pfizer antivirus which show tremendous promise, decreasing hospitalization by 89 percent — are you kidding me? — and we’re not pushing that? That should be an emergency. We should really be getting that out.”

During his speech earlier Tuesday, the president didn’t even mention therapeutics. This also triggered backlash, albeit from the right.

Look:

The discussion with Carlson concluded with him being asked to speculate on why the Biden administration is essentially ignoring therapeutics.

“When I was on the coronavirus task force, there was a sense of urgency, and I don’t see that sense of urgency now. Why aren’t they really anxious to get this under control?” he replied.

“And, you know, think about it, if we were so afraid of this virus, if this administration was so afraid of it why, would they be letting people come in through our southern border, 20 percent of whom are infected? I mean, there’s a lot of stuff here that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense if you’re talking about logic and common sense.”

Vivek Saxena
Latest posts by Vivek Saxena (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles