Twitter users gathered en masse to mock Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s self-quarantine after he was exposed to a coronavirus-infected Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) attendee.
Cruz announced Sunday he would quarantine himself in his Texas home since he had a brief conversation and a handshake with the infected CPAC attendee at last month’s conference in Washington D.C.
“I’m not experiencing any symptoms, and I feel fine and healthy,” the Texas senator said via statement. “Given that the interaction was 10 days ago, that the average incubation period is 5-6 days, that the interaction was for less than a minute, and that I have no current symptoms, the medical authorities have advised me that the odds of transmission from the other individual to me were extremely low. The physicians further advised that testing is not effective before symptoms manifest, and my brief interaction with the individual does not meet the CDC criteria for self-quarantine.”
“Nevertheless, out of an abundance of caution, and because of how frequently I interact with my constituents as a part of my job and to give everyone peace of mind, I have decided to remain at my home in Texas this week, until a full 14 days have passed since the CPAC interaction,” he concluded. (RELATED: Coronavirus Panic And General Media Stupidity)
The proverbial ink on Cruz’s statement had barely dried before bad takes began appearing on Twitter.
Here are several examples:
Thoughts and prayers (not really tho)…. https://t.co/JJk2EgYgYK
— Amy Siskind ????️???? (@Amy_Siskind) March 9, 2020
In fairness, people wanted Ted Cruz to self-quarantine way before COVID-19 was a thing.
— jelani cobb (@jelani9) March 9, 2020
Don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist but I refuse to believe that anyone interacted with Ted Cruz https://t.co/last76skSY
— Chase Mitchell (@ChaseMit) March 9, 2020
The coronavirus has announced that it is self-quarantining after possible exposure to Ted Cruz
— Patrick Monahan (@pattymo) March 8, 2020
Sorry to hear you are quarantined @tedcruz. The universe of alternative facts that you forced this country to live through is now coming around to smack you all in the ass. I hope because of you and others that defended the universe of alternative facts more Americans won’t die https://t.co/o2efT7bh2P
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) March 9, 2020
Wonder how Ted Cruz will keep busy while he’s quarantined pic.twitter.com/T5koneicVy
— rob delaney (@robdelaney) March 9, 2020
Have to believe there is an all-hands-on-deck emergency overtime feeling among the engineers at porn hub today on the knowledge that Ted Cruz will be stuck at home for 14 days.
— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) March 9, 2020
Ted Cruz quarantining himself just means he’s gonna be an even weirder little online freak like when he name-searched/quote-tweeted a four-like tweet and bragged about the student deleting it even though what happened was she protected her account because a US Senator did that.
— Cody Johnston (@drmistercody) March 9, 2020
Always happy to see Ted Cruz experiment with going away https://t.co/IsNVYfe6L4
— Louis Virtel (@louisvirtel) March 8, 2020
However, some were uncomfortable with the insensitive tweets and criticized those who took the opportunity to poke fun at Cruz:
Listen I dislike Ted Cruz as much as the next human being with a beating heart, but maaaaybe it’s not a good idea to mock people for making responsible decisions in the face of a poorly-controlled crisis? He should be staying home, and doing so isn’t a sign of weakness. https://t.co/pIUcIMHYIJ
— Jill Filipovic (@JillFilipovic) March 9, 2020
Ted Cruz self quarantining himself to protect his constituents and staff from coronavirus is probably the first decent thing he’s done in his whole career.
If you need to dunk on him go ahead, but I think it was a good call. Pandemics don’t care what party you belong to.
— Brianna Wu (@BriannaWu) March 9, 2020
The giddy reaction already be displayed down here to Ted Cruz announcing his self-quarantine for Coronavirus is as despicable as it is depressing. It seems more people are interested in rooting against the so-called other side than anything else. Just horrible.
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) March 8, 2020