Democratic Georgia U.S. Senate candidate Jon Ossoff told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday morning that he would support another shutdown if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended it to fight the ongoing coronavirus surge.
COVID-19 has surged across the United States and Europe in November with the U.S. on some days seeing more than 200,000 cases and over 2,000 deaths. While the spike has led some state officials to reintroduce lockdowns, Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp was one of the first to relax initial Spring restrictions in his state and has so far rebuffed calls for new ones.
“The White House coronavirus task force said that Georgia, your state, is, quote, in the early stages of full resurgence and that this is the moment to dramatically increase mitigation,” said guest anchor Dana Bash. “So, would you support harsher restrictions in Georgia like closing restaurants and businesses temporarily?”
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“I think we should follow the expertise of public health experts like those of the CDC which is based here in Georgia,” Ossoff responded. “And if that is the consensus of the public health community, we need to take that advice very seriously.”
The Georgia U.S. Senate candidate, who is running in a January 5 runoff against Republican Sen. David Perdue, insisted that epidemiologists “are qualified to advise us on the correct mitigation procedures.”
“And the problem we’ve had all year is that politicians have been suppressing and ignore public health advice,” he continued. “It’s time to trust the experts, listen to public health professionals in a public health crisis.”
“So if they said shut things down temporarily, you’d be all for it?” Bash asked. (RELATED: ‘Why Do Dems Hate Rock’n’Roll?’: Ted Cruz Applauds Van Morrison, Eric Clapton Anti-Lockdown Single)
“If the CDC and its leadership gave a strong indication that those kinds of stronger mitigation measures are necessary to save lives and contain the spread of the virus, it would be malpractice for politicians to ignore that advice,” Ossoff said. “There are more than 2,000 Americans dying per day. The spread is out of control. And the problem is we have ignored the public health experts. So I will be listening to them and not to political consultants, pollsters, or folks who are looking out for their own financial interests like my opponent.”