Adm. Brett Giroir, the Trump administration’s COVID-19 testing czar, did not take Rep.-elect Bob Good’s (R-VA) remarks downplaying the severity of surging cases of COVID-19 nationwide as a “phony pandemic” lightly during an interview on CNN Wednesday.
During a Trump rally Saturday in Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., Good ranted against coronavirus-related restrictions and dismissed the COVID-19 pandemic as “phony” amid record-breaking COVID-19 infection rates and fatalities across the country.
“This looks like a group of people that gets that this is a phony pandemic,” Good told thousands of pro-Trump demonstrators on Saturday. “It’s a serious virus, but it’s a virus. It’s not a pandemic.”
Good doubled down on his grievances over COVID-19-related restrictions by dismissing the pandemic as a “hoax” and brushing off the more than 300,000 COVID-19 fatalities in the country by saying the deaths constitute less than 1 percent of the population in a series of tweets posted the day after.
We have got to stop the insanity, and stop accepting the hoax that says forcing people to wear a mask, forcing businesses to close, prohibiting worship services, and keeping kids out of school will make a significant difference in whether or not we will die from this virus.
— Bob Good for Congress (@GoodForCongress) December 13, 2020
After nearly a year roughly 5% of Americans have been confirmed as contracting the virus including many who experience no symptoms. Less than 1/10th of 1 % of Americans have been reported as having died from the virus: 99.9% have survived year 1 & vaccine soon to be available.
— Bob Good for Congress (@GoodForCongress) December 13, 2020
Giroir issued a stern rebuke of Good’s nonsensical remarks during an interview on CNN Wednesday morning.
After bringing up that he does not personally know Good, Giroir matter-of-factly told CNN that “of course it’s a pandemic” before going onto take aim at Good’s “phony” assertion.
“There’s a definition of a pandemic and that is a virus that is raging across the world and this clearly is doing that and it has done that,” Giroir said. “We have hundreds of thousands of dead Americans, we have millions of people around the world — this is not phony, this is not fake. It is serious. We are still in a dangerous and critical time.”
Giroir also stressed that despite how COVID-19 vaccines will eventually help the country “put the nail in the coffin of this virus,” he warned against the public letting its guard down on mitigation strategies to reduce the spread of COVID-19 just because vaccines are on the way.
“But until then, we have to take it with utmost seriousness because, again, tens of thousands of Americans can either live or die depending on what we do to protect them until the vaccine gets widespread so it’s real, it’s serious,” Giroir said. “It’s what I live, breathe, think, dream every single day and all of us in America need to be that focused in order to save lives.”
When CNN anchor John Berman pointed out that Good will enter Congress next month, Giroir replied that he “will be happy to supply him technical assistance.”
Watch Giroir’s remarks below:
JUST NOW: "I will be happy to supply him technical assistance."
Admiral Brett Giroir throws shade on @GoodForCongress who claimed the pandemic is not real.
"This is not phony, this is not fake. It is serious. "@NewDaypic.twitter.com/XciU9xEeUf
— John Berman (@JohnBerman) December 16, 2020
