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Social distancing, masks, and increased attention to hygiene measures such as hand washing have proven to be of benefit in the battle to combat the COVID-19 virus, according to Dr. Ben Carson. What is less clear, however, is whether or not there is a measurable benefit to more extreme measures such as sheltering-in-place.

“I think the jury is still out on shuttering-in-place,” Dr. Carson told WIBC host Tony Katz Thursday. “There are several places that have not done it and they’re not fairing any worse than the states that have done it,” he said, adding that it was important to analyze all the available data to properly balance benefit and risk.

“We probably can’t achieve a situation where there is zero risk, and so we have to [balance that risk against] the benefits of having a functioning economy over the long run,” said Carson. “And [we need to consider] who will die if we don’t have a functioning economy and you have a lot of people suddenly thrown into poverty.”

Carson told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum earlier this month that not enough public attention was being paid to “the number of people who have recovered” from coronavirus” – which Carson said “is going to be about 98 percent of all the people who get it.”

Carson noted at the time that between one-quarter and one-half of all people infected with coronavirus are asymptomatic.

“You probably do know someone that has it, you may have it, who knows?” Carson told MacCallum. “But people have been terrified because we’ve talked about the bad.”

Carson, who was appointed as the Housing & Urban Development Secretary in 2017 under President Donald Trump, has established himself as a consistent voice of calm and credible reasoning during the COVID-19 pandemic who has sought to counter media hysteria and political pandering from far-left Democrats with facts.

Last Friday, the movement to cancel rent during the COVID-19 pandemic went national as Rep. Ilhan Omar (D–Minn.) introduced the Rent and Mortgage Cancellation Act, which would cancel rent and mortgage payments for the entire country “regardless of income or payment level.”

Omar’s legislation, which was co-sponsored by “squad” Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (D–Mich.), Ayanna Pressley (D–Mass.), would also allow the federal government to seize landlords’ properties for trying to collect rent during the Coronavirus.

“If we do some of the things that some people are proposing, we would end up destroying a lot of our infrastructure and create a system where people are going to be expecting [future bailouts],” explained Carson. “It’s very difficult to take something away once you’ve given it [in the past].”

Dr. Carson also explained in his interview with WIBC’s Tony Katz how renters and homeowners should go about seeking relief if they’ve been financially affected by the government-mandated shutdown. Click the link below to learn more by listening to Tony’s full interview with Dr. Carson.

https://omny.fm/shows/tony-katz-and-the-morning-news/hud-sec-ben-carson-speaks-to-katz-on-assisting-hom

Photo: Tasos Katopodis / Stringer