Sen. Rand Paul’s COVID-19 solution? ‘Open every school,’ reserve masks for at-risk

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s latest prescription for coping with COVID-19: Put kids in school and let young adults work and play while reserving masks and other restrictions for older, at-risk populations.

Paul said he’s opposed to keeping schools closed because kids are less likely to get the virus, and if they get COVID-19, he said he’d seen evidence that shows children don’t transmit the illness as much as other age groups.

“You know what I would do? I’d open every school, and I would wait and see if anybody gets sick,” Paul said in an interview with Libertarian economist Matt Kibbe that was shared Wednesday. “If you have a bunch of people get sick, you’ll test in that school. And guess what? You might have to close that school.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children “do not appear to be at higher risk for COVID-19 than adults.” But cases in children have increased at a higher rate recently in Kentucky. Children 9 and under account for about 1,430 of the state’s cases, according to state data.

Paul also said he thinks young people, in general, should be less concerned about the virus because older people are the ones dying from it.

“It’s not very dangerous for young people,” he said. He said COVID-19 is concerning for older people, but he thinks mask orders and business closures are negatively affecting people who aren’t at risk. He said the mask order was comparable to making everyone wear masks to protect America’s chemotherapy patients.

“We’ve never thought that everybody in society should wear a mask for people who are on chemotherapy,” Paul said. “That’s essentially what we’re arguing for now, is that everybody should wear a mask for those who are at risk instead of warning those at risk not to ... go to baseball games, not to go to a big church service.

“But if you’re 25 years old and have a kid that’s 2 and 3, going to church is probably absolutely no risk to you at all.”

Paul said he contracted COVID-19 in March and recovered by early April. He was criticized for not wearing a mask on Capitol Hill about a month later. He said he had immunity after recovering, but doctors have raised concerns that the extent and length of immunity haven’t been conclusively determined.

Kentucky has had a mask mandate in place since July 9. Since then, Gov. Andy Beshear repeatedly said it’s been effective in affecting the state’s daily case count. Kentucky set a record for new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, but the number was partially inflated due to a backlog of positive results, Beshear said. On Thursday, he announced 785 new infections.

Kentucky’s statistics show the 20-29 age group has the largest share of COVID-19 cases, but nearly half of all COVID-19 deaths have been people 80 or older.

Paul also urged governors to reopen their economies and their schools. Beshear has asked Kentucky’s schools to delay in-person reopening until Sept. 28.

Paul’s criticism of the way America has handled the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t just been about mask mandates and schools. He’s also taken aim at politicians on both sides of the aisle – and the president – for spending too much money.

Paul thinks Trump’s latest executive orders have overreached

Paul bashed Trump on Monday for signing COVID-19 relief executive orders allowing some increase in unemployment benefits, deferred payroll taxes and other moves. Paul said the orders not only add to America’s debt, but he thinks they also go beyond the president’s given powers. The orders bypassed Congress after members failed to come to an agreement on a new COVID-19 relief package for Americans affected by the economic fallout of the pandemic.

“It’s not like he went to the rainy day closet and searched for money, or the savings account,” Paul said in an interview with conservative-leaning Newsmax TV. “You don’t go over to the Federal Reserve and open a big safe and say, ‘Oh, here’s all this money I’ll pass out to people who are unemployed.’ We have no money.”

Paul added that presidents “don’t get to legislate.”

“I’m not a fan of this,” he said. “I don’t think the president should get to make these decisions. When it’s difficult and you have trouble getting a decision, then you get to an impasse, and impasses are what drive people on both sides to compromise to find a solution.”

In his interview with Kibbe, Paul extended his fiscal criticism to all Republicans and Democrats who have called for more spending in relief bills. He said he remembers during the 2008 recession when conservatives were outraged about $800 billion being spent.

“That pales in comparison to now,” he said. “That’s chump change now.”