August 5, 2020

Posted: August 5, 2020

Updated: 1:15 PM

KUSI Newsroom

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) San Diego County health officials have reported 290 new COVID-19 cases and three additional deaths, among the lowest numbers in the past month, although recent days have seen over 500 positive cases.

USC Professor of Pharmaceutical and Health Economics, Joel Hay, joined Good Morning San Diego to explain his frustration with how our public health officials are responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

As you know, Public Health Officials here in San Diego and across the country have relied on shutting down businesses in order to slow the spread of coronavirus in the community. Many Americans have been forced to permanently close their businesses because of this, and cases dont seem to be decreased at all.

Professor Hay believes shutting down the economy is the wrong approach to combat the virus. Hay told KUSIs Jason Austell, this virus is everywhere, it has been everywhere since at least March 2019. It spreads so rapidly, that its been in every community of the world for months and months and months.

Hay pointed to Sweden as proof that there are better ways to combat the virus. Sweden didnt shut down their economy, and Hay says they are only seeing 1 case per day. For a country with over 10 million people, Hay believes their response was a major success.

Furthermore, Hay explained he is not an advocate of wearing masks because they have little to no effect on stopping the spread of coronavirus.

Not only am I not an advocate of wearing masks, I consider them unconstitutional, they violate the First Amendment. By the way, do you know what the First Amendment says? It says Congress shall pass no law, not a little law, not Faucis opinion, Congress shall pass no law abridging the right of the people to freely assemble and freely express their opinion. My opinion is masks are an emasculation, and they are a violation of my free speech rights, which under the First Amendment, no law shall limit my First Amendment rights to free speech and free expression and not wearing masks he explained.

See original here:

USC Professor Joel Hay says we should not be shutting down the economy to fight COVID-19 - - KUSI