Rand Paul

Opinion contributor

I did not quarantine while awaiting a coronavirus test because I did not meet the criteria for quarantine. In fact, I did not meet the current criteria for even being tested, much less quarantined.

I have not had an encounter with anyone that health officials recommended quarantining or testing.

I took the test because my wife and I had traveled extensively during the weeks prior to COVID-19 social distancing practices, and I am at a higher risk for serious complications from the virus due to having part of my lung removed seven months ago.

I did attend Louisville’s Speed Art Museum charity ball on March 7. Unlike the other Kentucky government officials there, I had zero contact or proximity with either of the two individuals who later announced they were positive for COVID-19. The event was a large affair of hundreds of people spread throughout the museum.

The Metro Louisville Communicable Disease department announced that “those who public health officials consider at higher risk from possible exposure are being notified,” according to the museum’s director, Stephen Reily.

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I was not considered to be at risk since I never interacted with the two individuals even from a distance and was not recommended for testing by health officials.

For those who want to criticize me for lack of quarantine, realize that if the rules on testing had been followed to a T, I would never have been tested and would still be walking around the halls of the Capitol.

The current guidelines would not have called for me to get tested nor quarantined. It was my extra precaution, out of concern for my damaged lung, that led me to get tested.

Instead of hounding people who got tested and then quarantined themselves, perhaps we need to broaden the testing and quit the finger-wagging.

America is strong. We are a resilient people, but we’re stronger when we stand together.

Dr. Rand Paul, a Republican, represents Kentucky in the U.S. Senate.

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