Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., presented Dr. Anthony Fauci with a “real-life scenario” regarding Covid testing requirements currently playing out in America, and, as usual, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease had no answer for the dilemma.
Testifying before a Labor, Health and Human Services subcommittee hearing in the Senate, Fauci was asked by Rubio if “we are at a point now where American citizens should be allowed to return to their country without testing negative?”
“Dr. Fauci, I’m running into something that’s pretty interesting. I believe the United States is the only major Western country that now requires its citizens to test negative for COVID before they can get on an airplane and reenter the country,” Rubio said, in setting up his question. “I believe that’s accurate. On the other hand, we’re hearing now that…Title 42, which is a COVID-era policy, should be lifted, because we’ve reached a point now where COVID is manageable or [is] at a level [where] we no longer need Title 42.”
Rubio then referenced the disparity taking place on the U.S. southern border with Mexico.
“We obviously know we have a problem on our southern border, where every day people are entering the country illegally,” the GOP senator said. “Many are not even being tested for COVID, and even if they are, they’re being allowed to stay…. How do we tell American citizens: ‘If you test positive, even if it’s a dead virus that’s been in your system for ten days — you can test positive days after you’re no longer infectious — you can’t enter your own country. But if you arrive illegally, whether you test positive or not, if you say the magic words for asylum, you get to stay in the country.’”
Why do American citizens need a negative COVID test to re-enter their own country but people coming here illegally do not?pic.twitter.com/9y3x3DjGC8
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) May 17, 2022
Fauci was apparently stumped by the question… or didn’t want to risk the ire of President Biden and his handlers, which may put his position as the president’s chief medical advisor at risk.
“Thank you for the question. It’s an important question. I don’t have the answer to that,” Fauci replied. “I mean, we work with our CDC colleagues to continue to examine the feasibility of that and the desirability of that. I think the idea of having an immigration issue mixed with a public health issue for the general population — I think those probably should be separated.”
Rubio reminded Fauci that the issues are interrelated “because they both involve groups of people entering the United States.”
“One group is citizens of the country entering legally. The other group, frankly, are people that are not entering legally. The group that’s not entering legally, even if they test positive, if they’re even tested, get to stay. The American citizen can’t re-enter their own country until they produce a negative test,” he explained. “My point is if we’ve reached a point in COVID where we no longer need Title 42 as a COVID restriction for illegal entry, why do we still need travel restrictions for American citizens for legal entry into their own country? That’s the genesis of the question. That’s where I think the link is. This sort of seems to be at odds.”
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Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
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