Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) came under an avalanche of criticism on Monday after he tried to find a silver lining about reports of students getting infected with COVID-19 while at school.
The Florida senator's tweet came in reaction to news of a school in Georgia that is being shut down for the next two days after nine students came down with novel coronavirus infections in just the first week back from class.
"Any setting in which people interact will lead to infections," he wrote. "The good news is these infected students are at very low risk of complications."
Rubio then said that schools should work on "lowering risk of student infections," while "more importantly lowering risk of students infecting staff or high risk family members."
Rubio's tweet drew a quick backlash, as his followers pointed out that protecting vulnerable staff members and parents is impossible when the virus is running completely unchecked throughout the country.
Check out some reactions below.
@marcorubio You, alleged Christ follower, retweeted this to make your point about how risking students and teachers… https://t.co/pOO6tw8xG8— Elie Mystal (@Elie Mystal) 1597072162.0
@marcorubio if folks think in a couple weeks GOP isn’t going to be claiming number of school infections isn’t *that… https://t.co/nZMVMd1BXp— Eric Boehlert (@Eric Boehlert) 1597072093.0
@marcorubio Say that to the families of the more than 165,000 Americans who have lost their lives as a result of Tr… https://t.co/2HhZu3a7ok— Lula Rodriguez (@Lula Rodriguez) 1597069223.0
@marcorubio Low risk complications = high risk of spreading it to their parents and grandparents— Coli-19 (@Coli-19) 1597068794.0
@marcorubio Thank you Dr. Rubio. I'm sure this means a lot to the 6 students and 3 staff members who have already t… https://t.co/mw5a1oVjEK— Michael Murphy✌️ (@Michael Murphy✌️) 1597070622.0
@marcorubio REPUBLICANS: "The USA can do anything! Lets invade Iraq and rebuild democracy!" ALSO REPUBLICANS: "… https://t.co/v3AW00370V— Jay Louis (@Jay Louis) 1597071731.0
"good news" = children unnecessarily infected with a virus https://t.co/Dq0ts4YXRT— Oliver Willis (@Oliver Willis) 1597071594.0
Marco Rubio's profile states "Follower of Christ". He obviously misspelled "Trump". https://t.co/v46BAN89BA— Ácbéam🌳 (@Ácbéam🌳) 1597069364.0
