Sen. Rand Paul(R-Ky.) chose not to wear a protective mask when he returned to the Senate for work this week, claiming that he has immunity from COVID-19 after getting contaminated with it in late March and recovering.
” I have immunity. I’ve already had the infection, so I can’t get it again,” Paul said when asked by press reporters why he wasn’t using a mask as recommended by federal guidelines. “And I can’t give it to any person.”
He included: “So of all individuals you’ll meet here, I’m about the only safe person in Washington.”
Paul was the first recognized senator to have contracted the infection. On March 22, his workplace revealed that he had actually evaluated positive for COVID-19 and had actually placed himself in quarantine.
Paul was asymptomatic and had actually checked “out of an abundance of caution,” his office reported at the time.
The senator’s absence of a mask drew criticism from individuals who implicated Paul of putting his associates and others in Washington at threat of being infected.
Dr. Megan L. Ranney, an emergency situation doctor and teacher at Brown University, informed HuffPost that medical researchers do not understand when individuals become non-infectious to others. Ranney also pointed out that some healthcare employees are required to test unfavorable for the virus two times prior to being enabled to return to work.
Ranney also stated that Paul must be setting a much better example for his constituents by using a mask in either case.
” Despite whether he has actually been infected or not, he is a political leader, and his constituents want to him for assistance. He owes it to everybody to design finest public health practice– to put it simply, to use a mask in public,” Ranney said in an email.
” Additionally, at this moment, we don’t yet understand at what point individuals become non-infectious. Lots of health care workers are being required to have 2 negative nasopharyngeal swabs prior to going back to work.”
Numerous others likewise mentioned that his claim of immunity has actually not yet been proved.
The mask is meant to safeguard everyone else and Senator Paul could extremely well still be shedding infection. @RandPaul is truly the walking embodiment of how self-centered libertarianism actually is. https://t.co/C5VKKVaHrM
— Kendall Brown (@kendallybrown) May 5, 2020
Why is Rand Paul, a doctor, presuming something that’s clinically unfounded? https://t.co/gVw9ritJml
— Eric Geller (@ericgeller) May 5, 2020
being a MD is how Rand Paul identifies himself in his official Senate role. However what he’s speaking about with saying he has im