Frontline Health Care Workers Blast Senator Ernst for “Insulting Their Lifesaving COVID-19 Sacrifice,” Giving “Free Room for the Deniers to Act Recklessly”

Today, the Iowa Democratic Party released a new video featuring Iowa health care heroes and the U.S. Surgeon General, among other leading medical experts, sharply condemning Senator Joni Ernst’s “insulting” and “dangerous” conspiracy theories that doctors are inflating COVID-19 data for profit.

In the week since news broke of Ernst’s controversial comments, the U.S. Surgeon General, the Iowa Medical Society, and local medical experts alike have debunked Senator Ernst’s “malicious misinformation” – warning that it could lead to Iowa taking the pandemic “less seriously.”

Iowa frontline health care workers have also scorned Senator Ernst for attacking their sacrifice as they put their own lives on the line in order to contain the spread.

Watch: Health Care Heroes Blast Senator Ernst for Dangerous COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories

Senator Ernst’s feeble attempts to control her scandal without offering an explanation or apology have failed, and it’s clear that she’s still not even taking the pandemic seriously. On Friday, Ernst refused to wear a facemask at a crowded GOP fundraiser – once again proving false her repeated claims that she wears a mask in public. 

Ernst is unapologetically opposed to a statewide mask mandate, despite it being a lifesaving step pushed by her own party’s White House task force.

“From Day One, Senator Ernst has refused to take this deadly crisis seriously and once again proven she’s entirely unfit to represent Iowans,” said Jeremy Busch, Iowa Democratic Party spokesperson. “When even the U.S. Surgeon General uses his office to discredit Senator Ernst’s dangerous conspiracy theories, it’s clear this major controversy isn’t going away anytime soon. Senator Ernst owes Iowa’s health care heroes an immediate explanation and apology for her baseless attacks.”

Despite a full week to explain herself, Senator Ernst has refused to answer these five questions: 

  1. Will Senator Ernst apologize to Iowa health professionals and frontline workers for demonizing and slandering their life-saving work in order to downplay the human toll of the coronavirus?
  2. Where did Senator Ernst hear “on the news” the debunked conspiracy theories, and why is she peddling unfounded conspiracy theories when she has access to extraordinary amounts of health information and data?
  3. Why does Senator Ernst refuse to support a statewide mask mandate – going against the recommendation of the White House coronavirus task force and expert analysis that it would save lives?
  4. If Senator Ernst claims to support frontline workers, then why did she vote twice against paid sick leave and oppose jobless benefits for Iowans who lost their jobs due to the pandemic?
  5. Will Senator Ernst denounce the QAnon movement and their dangerous and corrosive influence that’s spreading throughout her political party?