CO-SEN: Cory Gardner accuses public health experts of politicizing the pandemic
In some of his most candid remarks to date about the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner told a conservative crowd that public health advice and science have been politicized in recent months, causing an erosion of public trust.
Gardner, a Yuma Republican, spoke in person to the Steamboat Institute’s annual Freedom Conference on Aug. 28. Video of Gardner’s remarks was uploaded to YouTube this week.
Gardner was asked by a panel moderator how the coronavirus pandemic became “so political” and why it had eroded “public trust in our media, in our institutions, in our government.” The senator, who faces re-election in two months, criticized public health experts, scientists, governments and the media for, he said, picking economic winners and losers based on political and philosophical beliefs.
“If we lose this economy, the damage will be catastrophic. Yes, we have a health crisis that we have to address and get through, but we can’t do it while we tell people, ‘Walmart can be open, but you have to be closed.’ I can’t tell you the number of people who came to me in tears. ‘I’ve been in business for 40 or 50 years,’ they’d say. ‘I’ve lost everything. But the business down the road that’s open does the same thing I do and they’re fine.’ What have we done?” Gardner said.....
Gardner, a careful and talented speaker, was unusually frank in his remarks, acknowledging at one point that he’s “passionate about” the issue. At one point, he delivered with a straight face an apparent joke about when the pandemic will end.
“My 8-year-old son came to me and said, ‘Dad, I know when the pandemic ends.’ And I said, ‘You do?’ He says, ‘Yes, the day after the election.’ Now, he picked that up somewhere or heard that somewhere, or maybe mom and dad were talking too much around him,” Gardner told a laughing crowd.
The anecdote plays into right-wing conspiracy theories about the virus being used — or even manufactured — to harm President Donald Trump’s re-election chances. Gardner will face John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, on Nov. 3 and is currently trailing the former governor, according to public polls.
https://www.denverpost.com/2020/09/04/cory-gardner-covid-science-freedom-conference/
= new reply since forum marked as read
