Donald Trump was, is, and always will be a terrible person. He’s a mediocre-minded and cruel narcissist, and the entirety of his life’s success comes from being born wealthy and failing his way up. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is an almost identical case, though probably a touch smarter than Donald Trump.* However, it is the national distaste of people like Rand Paul, when they are seen in public, that led to Republican voters rushing to Donald Trump in 2016.
Sen. Rand Paul has been angry with Dr. Anthony Fauci for the same reasons that Donald Trump has been angry with Dr. Fauci: the COVID-19 pandemic lays bare how ideologically bankrupt their political lives and policies really are. Sen. Paul’s entire schtick is pretending not to be the coddled rich kid brat of a confusingly respected libertarian racist conservative. This means bootlaces and no handouts (except from donors and his dad, I guess). It also means pushing 100% false information about the current COVID-19 pandemic.
On Thursday night, Paul went on Fox News to continue promoting the lies he believes will put him in best opposition to whatever solutions and policies the Biden administration tries to mitigate the pandemic with. Telling the Fox News audience that “We have 11 million people in our country who have already had COVID. We should tell them to celebrate. We should tell them to throw away their masks, go to restaurants, live again because these people are now immune.” This isn’t true. At all.
The Trump administration and Rand Paul’s belief in a “herd immunity” solution that somehow works out well for the American people and the American economy is clearly pathological. It has been debunked as a working theory of public health policy by anyone with the most basic understanding of science and infectious diseases and economics. Also, there has been a ton of scientific research done on how immune COVID-19 patients—who survive the virus—actually are. There is yet to be any proof that the antibodies needed to maintain immunity from re-contracting COVID-19 can last for very long. Paul’s assertion that you are immune to the virus once you have caught and recovered from COVID-19 is false.
Paul’s statement was ended by deriding Dr. Anthony Fauci and implying that now that Donald Trump has lost the election (though he doesn’t say “lost” or “Trump”), Dr. Fauci will change his tune. It’s the Rand Paul, by way of Ron Paul, brand of mushy-mouthed conspiracy lip-service done with the Rand and Ron Paul brand of rich kid cowardice we have come to expect from the Paul clan.
*One can argue that Trump’s hair is at least a strange ridiculous performance art piece, while Rand may have the single example of condescending hair in the modern era.