State Sen. Barfoot on coronavirus fallout: ‘Widespread panic is not in order,’ ‘Absolutely killing our economy’

The economic recovery from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic may take some time. However, an analysis of the numbers may show a degree of the initial panic was not necessary, according to State Sen. Will Barfoot (R-Pike Road).

During an interview with Huntsville radio WVNN’s “The Jeff Poor Show,” Barfoot, while acknowledging he was not in the medical profession, said he thought there were adequate resources available to handle the current circumstances.

However, when factoring out those of a certain age or having preexisting conditions, Barfoot estimates a minimal risk from COVID-19 to the general public.

“I’m not in the medical profession,” he said. “That’s not my area, my forte — but it seems to me there’s enough resources out there, at least immediately right now. You need to be diligent, be prepared for the future. You know, when we talk about this COVID-19, and there’s certainly some concern, but the heightened concern I think is for what I’m fastly approaching — the age of 65. And so, 65 or older, and if you have one of those five, six or seven underlying health conditions, then you need to take it certainly seriously. And everybody should.”

“But I think by the State Health [Officer]’s own numbers, there were a total of 23 out of 528 deaths as of yesterday that did not have one of the underlying health conditions,” Barfoot added. “And there were no deaths … under age 50 that did not also have underlying health conditions. So when you start to dig into the numbers — 528 deaths out of 13,000 confirmed COVID cases, if my math is correct that is about 99.6% of the individuals who have been in confirmed COVID testing have not perished — and not deceased, are still with us. And that’s of the ones that we know. Obviously, there are asymptomatic folks out there that we haven’t tested, and we don’t know if they actually have it. So, again, there is cause for some concern, and people should take appropriate measures that they deem necessary. But widespread panic is not in order, in my opinion. And I think it is absolutely killing our economy — small businesses around the state.”

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly and host of Huntsville’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 2-5 p.m. on WVNN.