Rep. Fred B. Keller (R-Pa.) told The Epoch Times that he does not think people would want the government peeking through the window to enforce the mask mandate in homes in Pennsylvania. He questioned California’s curfew and alleged the lockdown is an example of the cure being worse than the disease.
Keller criticized Pennsylvania’s Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf and his Health Department. He said that American people are smart and responsible enough to “to evaluate that and make those decisions” to visit relatives or go to a sports event “without having the government micromanaging what goes on inside our homes.”
During the pandemic, states took different approaches to tackle the spread of the virus. Some states have ordered curfews. Keller said he thought curfews were about controlling people rather than containing the virus.
“Gov. [Gavin] Newsom in California has a curfew that runs overnight from like 11 to five, I’m not sure I have the hours right on that. ... Does the virus spread differently after dark than it does between those hours?” Keller said. “Some of these things seem to me to be a little bit more about control, rather than trust and faith that the American people will look out for one another, their family members, their communities.”
Amid a recent spike in cases, a few states ordered lockdowns to prevent the epidemic from spreading. President Trump urged people not to make the cure worse than the disease. Keller echoed the President and noted that policymakers should not sacrifice fundamental freedoms in the name of keeping people safe.
“It is a virus, and we need to make sure that people are kept safe, if they can, but we’re also a free society—that I can make a determination on whether or not I want to go to a sporting event. ... I’m not trying to minimize the importance of keeping our vulnerable populations safe,” he said. “I want to make sure that our constitution isn’t thrown aside. Our rights are not suspended during a pandemic.”
Keller also commended President Trump’s leadership in dealing with the CCP virus and developing the vaccine.
He said the people elected President Trump as an outsider to the establishment because they believed that he would approach problems differently. Operation Warp Speed helped enable corporations to make a vaccine quickly available.
