Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Thursday blasted plans by Republican governors to reopen businesses in the immediate future, saying these plans would send “vulnerable workers to die.”
“Trump has NO PLAN to get people safely back to work. GOP Govs like [Georgia’s Brian] Kemp are sending vulnerable workers to die w/ false claims of safety,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Thursday in response to a tweet by former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders accusing her of wanting Americans to “boycott work.”
“Trump also pushed an unproven, dangerous treatment as a ‘cure’ & firing experts who want to vet claims,” she added. “Last thing you care abt is safety.”
“And by the way, setting up vulnerable workers to grind 70 hours a week to barely survive and STILL not have health insurance is unsafe too,” she added.
Kemp has announced the state will begin rolling back restrictions on some businesses, including tattoo parlors, hair salons and bowling alleys, beginning Friday. Democrats have criticized the plan, as have President Trump and Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), a vocal Trump ally who is challenging Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) for her seat.
Trump has repeatedly promoted the use of the drug hydroxychloroquine, frequently prescribed to treat lupus and malaria, as a potential cure or treatment for the virus despite limited anecdotal evidence of its efficacy. The largest analysis to date of the drug as a treatment for coronavirus found no evidence of benefit and increased deaths.
Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet also alluded to Rick Bright, a doctor who has claimed he was removed as the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority for prioritizing scientific research over funding for hydroxychloroquine in the search for cures and treatments for the coronavirus.