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‘Lockdowns Aren’t Your Savior’: Crenshaw Reacts To Critics Of Texas Opening

   DailyWire.com
Crenshaw
Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images

On Tuesday, after Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott announced he was ending the state’s mask mandate, Rep. Dan Crenshaw posited that “the rest of the country should follow Texas. Cases and hospitalizations are on a sharp downtrend,” adding in a reference to a Stanford study, “Sorry to break it to everyone in the comments, but lockdowns aren’t your savior. The data doesn’t lie.”

The Newsweek article Crenshaw linked to cited a study from Stanford University that “compared cases in England, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and the U.S. – all countries that implemented mandatory lockdown orders and business closures – to South Korea and Sweden, which instituted less severe, voluntary responses,” as Newsweek reported.

The study, published in the European Journal of Clinical Investigation, claimed there was “no clear, significant beneficial effect of [more restrictive measures] on case growth in any country.”

“We do not question the role of all public health interventions, or of coordinated communications about the epidemic, but we fail to find an additional benefit of stay-at-home orders and business closures,” the report underscores, while cautioning, “cross-country comparisons are difficult.”

Newsweek also noted studies that found lockdowns had a salutary effect, including one in Nature by researchers at Imperial College London from June 2020 that claimed over three million deaths had been averted because of lockdowns in Europe. Newsweek added, “A second study published alongside that report in Nature, and led by scientists in the United States, found that 530 million coronavirus infections had been avoided due to early lockdowns in China, South Korea, Italy, Iran, France and the United States, according to the news outlet.”

In December, Crenshaw gave an impassioned speech condemning House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for what he described as her “deeply partisan” decision to stall relief for the American people until after the recent presidential election. The Texas Republican also scorched Democrat leaders who have imposed lockdowns killing small businesses.

“She would say over and over again that nothing is better than something,” Crenshaw said of Pelosi. “She was being honest; she honestly believed that nothing was better than something. But better for who? Not for the American people, that’s for sure. She believed that nothing was better than something — for her and her party. It’s hard to imagine a more awful and heartless strategy.”

Speaking of the lockdowns and the Democrat leaders who have imposed them, Crenshaw fired, “This madness has to stop. This arbitrary application of executive orders is deeply, deeply unconstitutional… Americans have had enough. It is time to stand up against the hypocrisy of these so-called ‘leaders’ deliberately harming the citizens they claim to represent and to condemn the deeply partisan actions of the Speaker of this House.”

Abbott stated on Tuesday in his announcement ending the state’s mask mandate, “Too many Texans have been sidelined from employment opportunities. Too many small business owners have struggled to pay their bills. This must end. It is now time to open Texas 100%. So today, I’m issuing a new executive order that rescinds most of the earlier executive orders. Effective next Wednesday, all businesses of any type are allowed to open 100%. That includes any type of entity in Texas. Also, I’m ending the statewide mask mandate.”

“Today’s announcement does not abandon the safe practices that Texans have mastered over the past year,” Abbott continued. “Instead, it’s a reminder that each person has their own role to play in their own personal safety as well as in the safety of others. It’s a reminder that individual safety is managed every day as a matter of personal responsibility rather than by government mandate. Individual responsibility is a corollary to individual freedom, we can have both. Texans should continue following medical advice on preventing COVID just as they do on other medical issues. That is exactly how Texans were able to deal with infectious diseases in the past, like H1N1. They followed safe practices, and they got medical treatment when it was needed.”

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