WASHINGTON — For the last few weeks, we have been watching a battle play out between health and public safety versus economic and political interests. The fight was on full display Tuesday during hearings in front of the Senate's Health and Education Committee on America getting safely back to work and school.
In one chair Dr. Anthony Fauci, arguably America's top infectious diseases expert, saying quite clearly that a rush to open the country up to soon could lead to serious consequences -- consequences such as new outbreaks that we may not be able to control, leading to more infections, needless deaths, and will further push us away from any type of economic recovery.
In another chair, Sen. Rand Paul saying that there are people on the other side saying there won't be a surge that America, and the economy can safely be opened.
He also wanted Fauci to know that he is not the end-all voice on the federal response to the coronavirus and that he maybe needs to show a little bit of humility on the subject.
Fauci's reply to this was simple.
"I have never made myself out to be the end all and only voice in this," Fauci said. "I'm a scientist, a physician and a public health official. I give advice, according to the best scientific evidence."
It's up to Rand Paul and his colleagues to take the scientific evidence and make the safest, most responsible decision for their constituency. Now, I fully understand there are other concerns, specifically economic that must be considered. And they should be. But what I don't understand, is why in your mission to elevate economic concerns over health ones you attack the science.
Science doesn’t take a side; it takes a direction based on empirical evidence. It's politics that takes sides, and politics are not what is needed right now. Neither is conjecture, nor conspiracy theories, which is what attacking science gives rise to. You have millions of Americans who don't take the virus seriously because politicians chose to attack the science instead of weighing it.
Currently, we have over 1 million confirmed cases and more than 80,000 deaths, and these numbers keep climbing. Want to know what’s going to bring them down? Fact-based science aimed directly at the problem by experts.
The science should be driving the politics of this moment, not the other way around.