#Rep. Andy Biggs calls for coronavirus task force to be disbanded

A GOP Arizona lawmaker on Thursday called on President Trump to disband his Coronavirus Task Force saying it is holding back the economic recovery.

“As our economy is restored, it is imperative that President Trump is not undermined in his mission to return our economy to greatness. Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx continue to contradict many of President Trump’s stated goals and actions for returning to normalcy as we know more about the COVID-19 outbreak,” Rep. Andy Biggs said in a statement, referring to the top epidemiologists on the task force.

“This is causing panic that compromises our economic recovery. We can protect our most vulnerable from the COVID-19 outbreak while still protecting lives and livelihoods of the rest of the population. It’s time for the COVID-19 task force to be disbanded so that President Trump’s message is not mitigated or distorted,” Biggs continued.

The Arizona health department reported 3,333 new coronavirus cases and 37 deaths Thursday morning, Phoenix TV station KTAR reported.

That brings the state’s documented totals to 87,425 COVID-19 cases and 1,757 fatalities.

The single-day pandemic highs were 4,878 cases and 88 deaths, both reported Wednesday, when Vice President Pence visited the Grand Canyon State to discuss the COVID-19 outbreak with Gov. Doug Ducey.

Biggs then went on to tout the jobs report issued Thursday, which showed that the US economy added 4.8 million jobs in June, reducing unemployment to 11.1 percent, down from a peak of 14.7 percent in April.

“After two months of economic nightmares due to COVID-19 and our states’ reactions to the outbreak, the American economy is roaring back as we predicted. The fundamentals of our economy were very strong prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, and the pro-growth foundation that President Trump set over the past 3 years is paying dividends in one of our nation’s most-uncertain times. Americans trust President Trump and his team to lead our economy back to prosperity because of his track record,“ Biggs asserted.

Biggs has also railed about recommendations that people wear masks to prevent the spread of the pandemic, which has killed more than 128,000 Americans to date, with cases spiking in many states.

“Tyrannical governments have issued mandates that everyone in virtually every place wear masks,” he wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Examiner last month.

“America, and my home state, Arizona, are at a crossroads. We have two roads we can take. One is a return to the path of freedom; the other is totalitarianism. This is not necessarily a partisan issue or even a left/right problem. It is a potential permanent alteration of who we are as a people,” declared Biggs, who is serving his second term in the House, serving Arizona’s 5th congressional district, which sits in eastern Maricopa County.

“Nothing typifies this more fully than the mandates to wear masks that some governors and mayors are imposing on their citizens. That so many in our country are immediately acquiescent in the broad implementation of mandated masks reveals that we may have lost our way, perhaps irretrievably.”

His statement about the task force came the same day that Fauci told the BBC’s Radio 4 that the spike in coronavirus cases in many states were “the worst” the US had seen — and warned of “an even greater outbreak ahead.”