Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said he would do everything he can to “prevent” a lockdown if former Vice President Joe Biden officially wins the presidency.
Rand Paul by Andrew Cline. Shutterstock
“I’m going to do everything I can to try to prevent Biden from locking us up and locking us down and forcing us to wear masks forever,” Paul told New York’s WABC-AM 770 on Sunday. “We can’t go on like this forever.”
Biden will not be able to enforce a nationwide mask policy but has asked governors to impose these policies, per The Washington Examiner.
“The only thing that’s going to stop [the virus] is either enough immunity among individuals in the community or a vaccine,” Paul, a practicing optometrist, said. (RELATED: Jake Tapper Calls Coronavirus Vaccines An ‘Unmitigated Success’ For Trump Administration)
Paul went on to say that he believes lockdowns would not have a meaningful positive affect on the spread of the virus, saying that such policies don’t work.
“Lockdowns don’t work. And in fact, all of the evidence on mandatory masks show that they don’t work either. There’s about 10 different countries or venues, maybe 20, that instituted mandatory masks, and every one of them to a T, the infection rate or the COVID rate went up after the mask mandate. Now, this is just showing that … all these mitigation strategies — washing our hands, staying 6 feet apart — they really don’t work, frankly.”