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Brit Hume And Martha MacCallum Discuss The ‘Terrible Price’ Of Coronavirus Policies Based On Asymptomatic Transmission

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Fox News correspondent Brit Hume and Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum discussed the latest World Health Organization (WHO) firestorm and its implications for how policies developed to fight coronavirus should be judged.

The WHO asserted Monday that asymptomatic transmission of coronavirus is “very rare,” then walked back their statement Tuesday after a fierce national debate.

After playing both WHO clips on Tuesday night’s “The Story” followed by clips of Dr. Deborah Birx and other leaders talking about asymptomatic spread as a major reason for the ongoing lockdown and masking strategies, MacCallum asked for Hume’s reaction.

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“My first thought goes to school children, because we know that school children themselves are not much affected by this virus,” Hume responded. “So the thought was that you close the school not so much to protect them from getting it, but to protect these little asymptomatic children from going to school and infecting all the teachers. That was the only rationale that made any sense for closing down the schools. Now that whole question is up in the air …”

“So that is one whole big piece of this which has been so taxing to families and to kids themselves maybe based on a myth of asymptomatic transition by children,” he continued. “And now of course the whole question of asymptomatic transmission throughout the population is up in the air. And the World Health Organization cannot seem to figure out from day-to-day what it thinks.”

“Obviously there is a big policy investment from the highest office in this country into this idea,” said MacCallum. “And this lockdown, and saying that it had to happen, because if it hadn’t happened, millions of people would have gotten sick … but from a policy perspective, there is a big investment in making sure that this narrative holds on.”

Hume agreed, calling it “troubling” because the fact that the disease “primary affects the elderly and those with preexisting conditions of a certain nature” was “known from the beginning.” Yet, lockdowns were “imposed” on everybody.

Citing the fact that New York and New Jersey had severe lockdowns but forced positive patients into nursing homes while places like Florida protected their elderly yet were lighter on lockdowns, Hume said, “So I think that we reacted improperly to what we already knew, and we acted on things we didn’t really know, such as how much asymptomatic transmission there is.”(RELATED: Brit Hume Condemns ‘Black Grievance Politics’: No Country Has ‘Ever Tried Harder To Right The Racial Wrongs’)

“We’re paying a terrible price for this,” Hume concluded, warning that the severe economic damage will be more evident “down the road.”