Here’s What Barstool’s Dave Portnoy Gets Wrong In His Rant About Coronavirus Restrictions

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy took to social media on Wednesday to rant about coronavirus restrictions and the changing priorities of health officials he says want to keep people at home until there is a virus cure — even though high level health officials have laid out their advice differently.

KEY FACTS

In the video, Portnoy argues that health officials, who originally stressed that Americans would need to stay at home until states could “flatten the curve” — a phrase used to describe slowing the rate of new infections — are now hedging, saying people must stay under lockdown until a vaccine is produced.  

“When did this become ‘flatten the curve’… to ‘we have to find a cure’ or everyone’s going to die?” Portnoy questioned in an expletive-laced 3 and a half minute video that has been viewed over 4.5 million times on Twitter. 

Portnoy also specifically singles out Fauci and his Senate testimony on Tuesday, saying that the nation’s top infectious disease expert testified that if we “reopen the country…it’s quick everyone’s dead!”  

Except Fauci and other top health officials have never said that states would have to wait for a cure to reopen, instead pressing governors to follow White House guidelines that specify states should experience a 14-day downward trend in cases and have widespread testing before reopening — benchmarks that few states have hit even as most states have partially reopen. 

On Tuesday, during his Senate testimony, Fauci said that his “concern” was that some cities and states would “jump over…various checkpoints” and reopen prematurely without having the “capability of being able to respond effectively and efficiently.”

Although Fauci said it was a “bridge too far” to think that there would be a vaccine for COVID-19 in time for the start of the fall semester, he said students could return to campus, depending on the amount of infections and testing capability in the area.

Portnoy also calls out Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti in the video for saying the city won’t fully reopen until there’s a vaccine, though the mayor didn’t specify the economy would be “shut down” indefinitely, as Barstool founder insinuates — just that there would likely be certain restrictions until a vaccine is produced.