Rep. Gregory Murphy (R-NC), who is also a physician, said on Friday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow that “draconian” lockdown measures in many areas across the nation are no longer necessary and may even be harmful.
In his state, for example, where a lockdown order has been in place since March 27, Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper has yet to loosen the government’s grip on the population.
“Restrictions should be lifted, and, unfortunately, they’re not,” Murphy said. “That’s causing a lot of just downright despair across the state, and, I believe, unnecessarily.”
Marlow asked Murphy about the goal of the stay-at-home agenda, which at first seemed to be to “flatten the curve,” but that even though the curve has been flattened, the goal has morphed.
Murphy said flattening the curve was the right goal not only to save lives, but, moreover, to allow the medical establishment to get ready for a potential surge of coronavirus patients.
“We’ve accomplished that goal, and we stand ready to get a surge that I pray, and I don’t think, is going to happen,” Murphy said.
“But now, it’s turned into what I believe is more of a control freak kind of thing,” Murphy said. “They want to manipulate and make sure that they are in control with every step of this process and the data. The objective science does not warrant that.”
Marlow also noted that the divide between those who want to open up their states and those who want to continue lockdowns has turned into a political issue, with conservatives wanting to loosen restriction and Democrats in favor of more government control.
“I did not want this to turn political,” Murphy said.”Unfortunately, I believe the Democrats have made it political, which is just nonsense. I actually believed that this would be a great thing to bring our country together rather than tear it apart.”
Murphy used his state as an example of how more rural parts of the United States with low cases of the coronavirus can start getting back to normal. Approximately 87 percent of people who died from the virus in North Carolina were 65 or older with comorbid diseases — or underlying conditions such as heart disease or diabetes — and 58 percent of those people who died were in nursing homes.
“And we know people who are in nursing homes are very sick or they wouldn’t be there,” Murphy said. “Half of the individuals who go to nursing homes die in the first six months.”
“But scaring the rest of the 99 plus percent of the population who are younger and healthier into thinking that if they walk out onto the sidewalk, they’re going to die is just wrong,” Murphy said. “It’s morally wrong, I believe.”
Murphy also addressed the issue of some governors saying it will not be safe to reopen until a vaccine is found. He explained that the virus will be around until enough people get it and beat it and develop antibodies that make them immune, meaning the population gains “herd immunity.”
“It’s going to be a while until we have a vaccine — if we have a vaccine. Nothing is guaranteed on this,” Murphy said.
Murphy also noted that he does not believe there have been any successful vaccines for other coronavirus, including the common cold.
“Instead of running from it, I think we should learn to live with it,” he said.
What that looks like to Murphy is allowing small businesses to operate with safeguards in place, including hair and nail salons — use masks, stagger appointments, and routinely sanitize surroundings and equipment.
Murphy said small businesses “have every reason to make sure their clients and their customers are protected, or they will go out of business.”
People “desperately want to go back to work,” Murphy said. “There is no reason we can’t get those places back to work.”
Speaking as a lawmaker, Murphy said he would rather get Americans back to work than have the government dole out more money.
“I’m going to have a hard time voting for more money to be printed by the Treasury to give out to people when we should actually be going back to work and generating the income organically,” Murphy said.
Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
Follow Penny Starr on Twitter.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.