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A California doctor lashed out at the state’s coronavirus-related stay-at-home order because he says it forbids citizens from engaging in constitutionally protected activities.
In addressing what appears to be a protest rally, Dr. Jeffrey Barke, reportedly a family practitioner, lamented the state’s restrictions on attending church services and buying a firearm while ‘allowing’ people to purchase marijuana products and get abortions.
Also, Barke suggested that wearing masks to prevent the spread of the disease wasn’t “effective,” adding that the claim is not popular with the media or government officials.
Barke began his address by saying he represents “thousands of physicians across the country whose voices are being silenced because we don’t agree with the mainstream media and the experts who are telling us what to do.”
Continuing, Barke noted, “Never in the history of this great republic have we quarantined the healthy” or, “told churchgoers that it’s illegal for you to exercise your First Amendment right of freedom of religion.”
“Yet, at the same time,” he said, “it’s essential to keep pot dispensaries open. Never in the history of this country have we been told that you can’t go to church because it’s ‘non-essential’ but you can go get an abortion because that’s ‘essential.’”
As coronavirus-related lockdowns continue around the country and more Americans remain under activity restrictions, protests have been growing.
“Never before in our country have we let criminals out of jail but we’ve told you, you can’t exercise your Second Amendment right and protect yourself by purchasing a firearm,” Barke noted further.
The family practice doc also ripped the state for continuing to keep some businesses closed, even as unemployment around the country tops 30 million.
“When liquor stores are deemed essential but your businesses are deemed non-essential, there’s something wrong going on,” he added.
Barke then took a document out of his pocket he said was a copy of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, which he noted was not “designed to constrain” Americans, it was “designed to constrain the government.”
He then suggested that shutdown rules should be adjusted due to regional conditions, not based on a one-size-fits-all model.
“This is not New York, and thank God, this is not San Francisco,” Barke said. “Gov. [Gavin] Newsom has gone too far. Gov. Newsom has stepped on our liberties and our freedoms.”
Barke said that while coronavirus was indeed deadly, it does not universally affect the population in the same ways and that overall, mortality rates are “in the ballpark of a bad seasonal influenza.”
He also claimed that more experts believe that the best way to fight the virus is to “achieve herd immunity” as with other viruses in the past. But, “we can never achieve herd immunity by keeping the herd quarantined,” he added.
As we reported, two additional physicians from California — Dr. Dan Erickson and Dr. Artin Massihi — argued in favor of creating herd immunity in an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham in late April.
They noted that, based on their research at the time, the death rates in Sweden and the U.S. are virtually the same, though the latter country merely practiced social distancing and did not shut down its economy with a stay-at-home order.
“If you’re going to dance on someone’s constitutional rights, you better have a really good reason — not just a theory,” Erickson said. “The data is showing us it’s time to lift (the lockdowns). So if we don’t lift, what is the reason?”
“Something else is going on here. This is not about science and it’s not even about COVID. When [authorities] use the word ‘safe’ — if you listen to the word ‘safe,’ that’s about controlling you.”
For his part, Barke said that we must continue to protect Americans most at risk for contracting and dying from the virus, “but we allow the young and healthy to open the doors and go back to work.”
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Jon is a staff writer for BizPac Review with 30 years' worth of reporting experience, as well as an author and U.S. Army veteran. He has a BA in political science from Ashford University and an MA in national security studies/intelligence analysis from American Military University.
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