Over the last two weeks of July, when many U.S. students returned to school at the insistence of President Donald Trump, more than 97,000 children have tested positive for coronavirus, according to a disturbing new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, which included data from 49 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and Guam.
But according to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), those numbers are “good news.”
Desperately trying to find a silver lining in the report and news that a school in Georgia has had to shut down for two weeks after 9 students contracted COVID-19, Rubio tweeted out this tone-deaf celebration:
Any setting in which people interact will lead to infections
The good news is these infected students are at very low risk of complications
The key is:
-lowering risk of student infections
-more importantly lowering risk of students infecting staff or high risk family members https://t.co/rdvQT3IqdH— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) August 10, 2020
So now it’s a good thing when people test positive for a deadly disease? Republicans are trying to make us believe something terrible is positive. It’s their latest assault on the truth and follows the pattern set by Trump, who has made over 20,000 false or misleading claims since taking office, according to the Washington Post.
Rubio’s absurd tweet drew heavy criticism on social media:
You, alleged Christ follower, retweeted this to make your point about how risking students and teachers lives is fine… somehow MISSING the point that this student is receiving threats for telling the truth.
Seems like *persecution* is the kind of thing Christ would notice.
— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) August 10, 2020
Republicans don’t think about others. Couldn’t be clearer. Vote them all out!
— highdesertresists (@GOTV_everyday) August 10, 2020
Low risk complications = high risk of spreading it to their parents and grandparents
— Coli-19 (@Colitronskis) August 10, 2020
REPUBLICANS: “The USA can do anything! Lets invade Iraq and rebuild democracy!”
ALSO REPUBLICANS: “Setting up a national testing plan and tracers during a pandemic is way too much work, lets leave it up to the states and go golfing.”
— Jay Louis (@JayLouis) August 10, 2020
Marco Rubio’s profile states “Follower of Christ”. He obviously misspelled “Trump”. https://t.co/v46BAN89BA
— Ácbéam (@Acbeam) August 10, 2020
Thank you Dr. Rubio. I’m sure this means a lot to the 6 students and 3 staff members who have already tested positive, not to mention the hundreds of students, family members and staff who will test positive in this one school in the coming weeks.
— Michael Murphy✌️ (@mmurfy68) August 10, 2020
Children don’t exist in a vacuum. They have to go home sometime. They have to go to jobs in some cases. They socialize. They congregate. #toughspotforparents
— changed (@BarrClifton) August 10, 2020
Tell that to the family of the seven year old in Georgia that went back to school, no underlying conditions and now he is dead from Covid-19.
— Ken Reece (@KenReece) August 10, 2020
Just when you think Republicans cannot possibly get more utterly clueless and heartless, they lower the bar even further and manage to limbo right under it.