‘While we should aggressively protect the most vulnerable, policymakers should not bend to the hysteria manufactured by Leftists and the media…’
(Michael Barnes, Liberty Headlines) Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., wants to know why the GOP governor of his home state is shutting down the “sturdiest demographics,” when he should be re-opening Arizona for business.
Children and young adults have proved the most resilient groups in the face of the Wuhan virus pandemic. But Arizona’s Republican Gov. Doug Ducey is treating them, and the businesses that serve them, as if they are just as vulnerable as elder adults.
According to Biggs, Ducey is bowing to media pressure.
“While we should aggressively protect the most vulnerable, policymakers should not bend to the hysteria manufactured by Leftists and the media,” Biggs wrote in a Townhall.com op-ed on Wednesday.
“It is time to acknowledge that the Democrat Leftists and their accomplices in the media are busy engendering hysteria in the American people over the COVID-19 outbreak,” he said.
Ducey ordered new business closures earlier this week just as the state economy was gaining momentum.
Like most states, all “non-essential” businesses were shut down for months due to Wuhan virus-related concerns. Unemployment soared as a result.
The Arizona economy came roaring back once mandatory closures and stay-at-home orders were lifted, but Ducey’s new order threatens to undermine the recovery.
Worse, the order is based on politics rather than data, he asserted.
“There is a plethora of data that’s available and when taken in context undercuts the broad sweep of the Governor’s recent edict,” Biggs said. “The Governor should rescind his recent order and get Arizonans back to work, school, and play.”
According to the Arizona Department of Health Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the two demographic groups that are least likely to suffer harm from the Wuhan virus are children, teenagers and young adults ages 0-20, and adults ages 21-44.
But that’s exactly who Ducey targeted in his new order which closes schools, bars, restaurants, gyms, water parks and even river tubing.
“Those over the age of 65 are clearly the most susceptible to dying at the hands of the virus,” said Biggs. “Children need to be in school.”