Matt Gaetz's solution to Florida's virus surge: 'Lock up the boomers'

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) proposed to “lock up the boomers” in response to the recent surge of COVID-19 infections in his home state of Florida.

“I think younger people are not going to stomach another lockdown,” Gaetz said in a radio interview on Tuesday. “I think younger people are going to move about the country, so we’ve got to prepare for it.”

Gaetz also leaned on discredited claims about the virus, suggesting that skyrocketing cases in the state are due to Florida having “the most robust testing system in the nation,” and that travelers “coming in and out from Latin America” were impacting surges “substantially,” though there is no evidence to support that.

However, there is abundant data showing that people in their 20s to 40s are increasingly testing positive for COVID-19 and transmitting it around the country, though Gaetz said there should be no expectations for this group to take virus precautions.

Florida has mismanaged their virus response since the beginning of the outbreak, most notably refusing to close beaches despite evidence that the coronavirus was being transmitted among spring breakers.

The state, under the leadership of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) also reopened ahead of other states, only to see infections and deaths substantially increase.

From the July 14th edition of Fox News Radio’s “Fox Across America”:

JIMMY FAILLA, host: What do they attribute the situation in Miami to? Is that people going out? Is that people traveling? Is it the surge in testing? Like, what specifically would you tell the audience on that? Because I do know people want to know, because they’re, you know —

 

REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): It’s a combination. So, in the Miami area you have a real international city. And people are coming in and out from Latin America, and they are getting hammered in Latin America right now with coronavirus, and so that impacts Miami substantially.

 

But also, in a lot of the agricultural communities down there around the Everglades, the governor has been very aggressive about going in and testing everyone, and so a consequence of building out the most robust testing system in the nation, which is what we’ve done in Florida, is that we in fact have a higher number of cases.

 

And I think that now, when you’re looking at 15,000 cases in a day, you passed the point of just being able to like contact trace, right? You have to become more resilient in your sanitation, you have to, I think, be effective in social distancing, and I think our people can do that.

 

I mean, I don’t think we have to go into another lockdown to socially distance, to be very aggressive on sanitation and hygiene, and then, you know, lock up the boomers, you know, for the most part, because they’re the ones who see higher intubation rates and death rates.

 

I think younger people are not going to stomach another lockdown. I think younger people are going to move about the country, so we’ve got to prepare for it.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.