'Kind of a lunatic': Sen. Sherrod Brown calls out Sen. Rand Paul for not wearing a mask

Jackie Borchardt, Cincinnati Enquirer
·2 min read
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) speaks to the media after touring a mass vaccination site on Tuesday, May 4, 2021 at the Celeste Center in Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Mysheika Roberts, director of Columbus Public Health, and Al Edmondson, owner of a Columbus barber shop, joined Sen. Brown on the tour to talk about the importance of vaccination. Vaccination rates across the country are dropping, and health officials are concerned herd immunity may not be possible in the United States.
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U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio on Tuesday singled out his colleague from Kentucky, Sen. Rand Paul, for not wearing a mask while conducting Senate business.

Brown, asked about senators who don't wear face coverings, acknowledged that most of them are doing so before mentioning Paul, a Republican from Bowling Green.

"One of them that's an M.D., isn't, but he's kind of a lunatic," Brown, a Cleveland Democrat, said during a Tuesday visit to a Columbus mass vaccination site.

He added: "He thinks he wants to be different but it doesn't serve the public interest."

Brown, who is fully vaccinated, wore a mask during the entirety of his 45-minute event. Brown said he does so to "make sure everyone is safe and to set that tone."

It's not the first time Brown has chastised Paul for not wearing a mask. Speaking on the Senate floor in February, Brown asked that Paul "would show the respect to his colleagues to wear a mask when he's on the Senate floor walking around and speaking."

Paul was the first U.S. Senator to announce he'd tested positive for the novel coronavirus in March 2020.

Paul engaged in a heated exchange in March with Dr. Anthony Fauci about wearing a mask post-infection or vaccination, suggesting it's "theater."

Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Paul that masks are protective, even for people who are immunized.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised last week that fully vaccinated people could safely gather indoors with fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask or staying 6 feet apart.

Post-vaccination "breakthrough" cases and hospitalizations have occurred but are very rare. Only 9,245 "breakthrough" cases and 835 hospitalizations have been reported out of more than 95 million people who have been fully vaccinated in the U.S. as of April 26.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Sen. Sherrod Brown calls out Sen. Rand Paul for not wearing a mask