Georgia’s Democratic Senate Candidate Says He Will Follow CDC Recommendations on Lockdowns

Jon Ossoff speaks in Atlanta, Ga., on June 20, 2017. (David Goldman/AP Photo)

Jon Ossoff, Democrat candidate for the Senate in Georgia, said that he would follow the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) recommendations for future CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus lockdowns. The Republican incumbents want the economy to remain open while virus mitigation efforts continue.

On Sunday, Ossoff was asked if he would approve stricter lockdowns if the CCP virus cases continue to surge.

“I think we should follow the expertise of public health experts, like those of the CDC, which is based here in Georgia,” Ossoff said. “And if that is the consensus of the public health community, we need to take that advice very seriously.”

Ossoff said that politicians do not have the expertise and are limited in their knowledge of how diseases spread.

“Epidemiologists who dedicate their careers and their training to studying the spread of infectious disease are qualified to advise us on the correct mitigation procedures,” Ossoff said. “And the problem we have had all year is that politicians have been suppressing and ignoring public health advice. It’s time to trust the experts, listen to public health professionals in a public health crisis.”

Meanwhile, Ossoff’s Republican opponent, Senator David Perdue (R-Ga.), said earlier in November that it is up to each state how they want to handle lockdowns and pandemic mitigation, but the effort should be disciplined like the U.S. military.

“All throughout, our military has been totally functional and their infection rates have been very managed because they were disciplined and they follow the protocol, and that’s what I’m calling for now. I think if we continue to follow the protocol, open judiciously, follow the guidelines, we can continue to reopen the economy,” said Perdue.

The other Georgia senator, incumbent Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) has made more explicit statements against further CCP virus lockdowns.

“I want to reopen our economy. I want to ensure Georgia small businesses and workers have relief. Democrats want lockdowns—and they’ve blocked relief time and time again. We’re going to hold them accountable on January 5^th,” Loeffler wrote on Nov. 18.

Since control of the Senate rests on the results of the Georgia runoffs, both Democrats and Republicans have been holding campaign events despite a rise in virus cases. Perdue and Loeffler have been holding large campaign events with groups at inside and outside venues, while their Democrat counterparts have been limiting their larger campaign events to outside and inside events only for registering voters.

“The stakes of turning out Georgians to vote for Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock could not be higher,” Miryam Lipper, a spokeswoman for Ossoff, and Warnock spokesman Terrence Clark said in a joint statement.

“In close consultation with public health experts and an epidemiologist, we’ve created an in-person voter contact program with strict protocols that will allow organizers and volunteers to safely register new voters and knock doors across the state,” they added. “This work is especially important for ensuring voters in communities of color, who have been left behind in the past, have the information they need to vote.”

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.