Former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson criticized proponents of continued lockdown measures as “fools” who “haven’t read the data” on coronavirus.
Introducing Berenson on Tuesday night’s edition of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Fox News host Tucker Carlson brought up the fact that the man whose coronavirus predictions played a key role in Britain’s lockdown strategy resigned his post after violating his own social distancing rules by meeting and having sex with a married woman while he had symptoms.
“The irony here is overwhelming, but at its root it’s a real person making these decisions and I wonder what does it tell you about what Neil Ferguson actually thinks?” Carlson asked. “He not only violated the quarantines he espoused, but he exposed other people to the virus. What does that tell you?”
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“This is a great question and, you know, with the way people behave it suggests that they are much more aware of where the risks really are here,” Berenson responded. “I’m getting sick of people saying we don’t know much about this virus. We don’t know enough to know what the right steps are. First of all, if that’s true, why have we shut down the world?”
Berenson insisted that “we do know a lot about this virus,” particularly that the “average age of death in the United States and worldwide is probably about 80 or 82” and also “half if not more of the people who die in the United States are dying in nursing homes.”
Instead of focusing on protecting nursing home residents and the vulnerable, “our leaders are spending time haranguing us about masks and destroying the economy with lockdowns, and every day it makes less sense and every day it’s more infuriating,” he said.
“It sounds like you’re suggesting that some of the people espousing these measures which are really warping and destroying in some cases our society know that they are really not necessary,” said Carlson.
“If they don’t know, they are fools and haven’t read the data which is publicly available, which is available on their own government websites,” said the former NYT reporter, who is noted for actively combating lockdown proponents on Twitter. “And if they do know, I just don’t know what they are doing.”
Berenson derided the “phased-in lockdown plans” with “unrealistic benchmarks” in several states like Oregon and Illinois. (RELATED: ‘That Really Snapped My Neck’: Mike Rowe Has A Bone To Pick With Andrew Cuomo’s ‘If It Saves A Single Life’ Remark)
“There are things we could and should be doing, but when we are spending all our time, again, trying to scare people who are very low risk, and very successfully,” Berenson added. “One of the incredibly sad things about this is how many people won’t go outside. They will not leave their homes. By doing that we are doing exactly the wrong things.”