WHEATON – The Washington Times, this morning, reported a recent Twitter-rant in which Democrat incumbent Sean Casten (IL-06) attempted to discredit the Great Barrington Declaration petition, which calls for using “focused protection” to isolate the elderly and vulnerable while opening up the rest of the society to “build up immunity to the virus through natural protection,” over an endless lockdown.
The document Casten rejected was co-authored by epidemiologists at Harvard, Stanford and Oxford. Thirty-two thousand other scientists and medical experts signed on, endorsing the policy prescription.
"It is a heaping, stinking pile of junk science, advocating that we isolate the sick and the elderly and pretend that COVID doesn't effect [sic] young healthy people in the name of 'restarting' the economy and herd immunity," Casten tweeted earlier this week.
Then he wrote, “The GBD advocates nothing more than killing Americans. That is pure, unadulterated evil.”
The congressman's response shocked the Ives' campaign.
"When Casten's GOP challenger Jeanne Ives pointed to the declaration during their WGN debate Friday night, Casten appeared dumb-founded," the Ives campaign said Wednesday. "Half a day later, Casten apparently came unglued over being 'out-scienced.' He launched into a Twitter rant calling the more than 32,000 public-health scientists and medical practitioners worldwide who have signed the declaration 'evil' and the declaration itself 'irresponsible and deadly.'"
He also demanded media outlets not cover the declaration, tweeting: “To the media: do not give platforms to anyone who advocates this plan. Do not ‘both sides’ this. Ignore it. Shut it down. Real lives are in the balance.”
Ives challenged Casten's response, and told gathered supporters about the controversy Tuesday night at a Lisle cigar shop.
“It doesn’t matter what the conversation is, or how credential an scientist or expert you are,” said Jeanne Ives. “If you disagree with Sean Casten you are stupid, evil, racist, a Nazi or some other form of low-life. We have seen similar behavior from Casten, when he refused to question a well-known climate scientist in a US House Committee hearing, saying it would be, ‘a waste of his time.’
“This rant against 32,000 scientists who have a different public policy prescription for dealing with COVID-19 than Rep. Casten absolutely proves it. Casten wants anyone with different ideas than his to be shut down. Good leaders listen to experts. They don’t demand people with new or different ideas be shut down, and then claim expertise over all fields. He’s out of his mind. The voters of IL 06 deserve better.”
The contest between Casten and Ives will be decided in Illinois' 6th CD on November 3.
