Should US go back into coronavirus lockdown?
Reaction from author Alex Berenson and Committee to Unleash Prosperity president Phil Kerpen.
Questioning the wisdom of measures adopted by officials to stop the spread of coronavirus does not make someone "anti-science" or otherwise dangerous, former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson told "The Ingraham Angle" Wednesday night.
"Just because I'm quoting you in a way that you don't like or quoting your agency in a way that you don't like because it reminds you of stuff you said before March that you wish you could make go away does not mean I'm anti-science, it means I'm doing my job as a journalist," said Berenson, the author of "Unreported Truths about COVID-19 and Lockdowns."
"And that's something else that we've forgotten," he added, "all these reporters who are happy to get in the face of the president -- and I understand that's their right, their duty -- they will not ask tough questions of Dr. [Anthony] Fauci or anybody else who claims to have a scientific authority and that is a complete failure."
Berenson stated that "for 15 years, the [World Health Organization], the [Centers for Disease Control], and experts on this thought that a lockdown would be a terrible idea. The people who really looked at this the hardest for the longest for a long time all said the same thing, which is, wash your hands, sneeze into your elbow, and there's only so much you can do about this and trying to do too much is as likely to cause pain as it is to do any good."
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However, when coronavirus cases were first confirmed in substantial numbers in the U.S. this past March, Berenson claimed that media organizations led a "panic" that pushed officials to instituted stay-at-home orders and other restrictions.
Meanwhile, he went on, other jurisdictions that did not shut down at the first sign of trouble, appear to be faring rather well.
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"Sweden, which didn't lock down at all, appears to be done with its pandemic," said Berenson, who added that the widely reported case spikes in Sun Belt states like Florida have not reached the levels seen in places like New York and New Jersey.
"There's been a spike in positive tests, some spike in hospitalizations," he said, "but the deaths are much lower than they were in the Northeast in March and April, which lockdown really harmed really fast."
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