Representative Rick Crawford of Arkansas stated that he does not know whether COVID-19 is more serious than the common cold.
Republican Rep told Fox News The host Alicia Acuna stated that his comments “do not downplay the severity of the pandemic” and clarified at the beginning that he believes the virus is real.
“I believe the COVID virus is real,” he said. “However, I don’t know that it is worse than the common cold. We managed to overcome the common cold by working overtime vaccination and herd immunity.”
He added: “We must learn to coexist with the virus.”
Before continuing to raise questions about the ongoing negotiations on the infrastructure bill, Akuna did not pressure him on these comments.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, 613,092 people in the United States have died of the virus since the pandemic began. Globally, more than 4 million people have died of COVID-19. CDC Data going back to 2010 show that in a given year, 12,000 to 61,000 people died of influenza.
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These comments were strongly opposed on social media.
“Maybe he needs to talk to the grieving relatives of those who died of Covid, or go to the hospital and talk to people in the ICU,” Twitter User @MollyBrown28 wrote.
“Common cold vaccination and herd immunity? More than 200 viruses are known to cause the common cold,” user @Woofkoof wrote. “People don’t usually die from colds in large numbers. In the United States alone, more than half a million people die from COVID.”
In Arkansas, more than 6,000 people have died of the virus, and the number of cases is rapidly increasing due to the highly virulent Delta variant. John Hopkins stated that more than 2,500 new cases were reported on Friday, compared with 686 cases on June 30 a month ago.
Asa Hutchinson, the governor of Arkansas and a Republican, has urged some members of the party to take the pandemic and vaccination more seriously. He said there should be no partisan differences surrounding the pandemic and vaccines.
“First of all there should be no party differences. But, obviously, conservatives are more hesitant to the authority of the government. This is the essence of it. So, I think in the southern states and some rural states, you have more conservative methods, doubts about the government, “Hutchinson said in early July ABC information’ this week.
Hutchinson was strongly opposed by some residents in response to the pandemic.
“When I attend these town hall meetings, some people say,’Don’t call it a vaccine, but call it a biological weapon.’ They talk about mind control,” Hutchinson said CNNof Union State“Well, these are obviously wrong. Other members of the community corrected this.”
Weekly newspaper Contact Crawford’s Washington, DC office for comments. This story will be updated with any response.
