Idaho’s Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin made news for all the wrong reasons last month when, in a video denouncing state and local COVID restrictions, she held up a Bible and a gun as examples of what she fears losing.
Well, you’re never going to believe this: McGeachin doesn’t accept science.
On Tuesday, during a livestream for the right-wing group Idaho Strong, McGeachin announced a plan to send some of the state’s funding from the CARES Act to “walk-through disinfectant cubes” that would go up in the State Capitol.
Those cubes purportedly allow people to get fully disinfected simply by walking through them.
The problem with that is obvious: They don’t work when it comes to COVID. In fact scientific journals have said as much, with researchers even adding that those cubes may be counterproductive because they lead to the spread of the virus.
The Idaho State Journal explains:
Such technology has been widely discredited. According to the National Institutes of Health, a June study published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene found “walk-through sanitation gates” ineffective and potentially dangerous, noting that the practice violates World Health Organization standards. “Fumigation is meant for inanimate objects and surfaces, and it should never be used on people,” the study said.
This is what happens when you elect Republicans. They waste money on nonsense while people suffer all around them. That money would be better spent just paying people to stay home until a vaccine is readily available.
For now, though, the proposal is nothing more than that:
McGeachin’s proposal comes to a total of $16.8 million, including $80,000 for two walk-through “Xtreme Opti-Clean Cubes” to be stationed at the entries to the east and west wings of the state Capitol. She submitted it to Gov. Brad Little’s Coronavirus Financial Advisory Committee late last week, but it hasn’t been added to the agenda for CFAC’s upcoming Wednesday meeting.
Alex Adams, CFAC chairman, said, “CFAC has appreciated proposals from members of the committee and members of the community at large. For all proposals, we do our due diligence.” That process is currently under way on McGeachin’s proposal, he said.
With politicians like McGeachin, no wonder conspiracy theories thrive in right-wing media. It’s not just that people on the fringe believe them. People on the fringe get elected and have the power to waste time and money on these wild goose chases instead of listening to experts.
(via Joe. My. God.)
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