I’m guessing that Rep. Andy Biggs believes that he is in a very safe place, a place far away from the virus that causes COVID-19 and has killed nearly 22,000 Americans as of Monday afternoon.

A virus for which we have no vaccine and for which there is no known deterrent other than safe social distancing.

Biggs must believe that he is immune to this thing. Or he has had himself hermetically sealed and locked into a steel-enclosed safe at the bottom of a salt mine, from which he is still managing to issue press releases and tweets.

Because otherwise there is no logical reason for Biggs to be suggesting, essentially, that you should be willing to die for the economy.

Which is first: The economy or lives?

Biggs wants to remove from the national decision-making process Dr. Anthony Fauci, our top infectious diseases expert and one of the few grown-ups in the room when President Donald Trump holds press conferences.

Biggs also would remove Dr. Deborah Birx, another high-profile health expert.

If we take doctors out of the room more people will die.

It’s that simple.

Which is a good word for Biggs.

Simple.

He tweeted:

No.

We’ve already caused the unnecessary deaths of too many Americans by reacting too slowly to the dangers of the coronavirus pandemic. The very worst thing we could do would be to loosen restrictions before we’re fairly sure it is safe.

Leave these decisions to the experts

In order to make that decision, to reestablish some version of “normal,” we need medical and infectious disease specialists like Fauci and Birx.

What we do not need are political hacks like Biggs backing policies that will get Americans killed.

Trump fed the zeal of zealots like Biggs by adding the hashtag #FireFauci to a tweet.

For now, the White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley quelled that lunacy.

He said in a statement, "This media chatter is ridiculous – President Trump is not firing Dr. Fauci.”

Good. But it is not media chatter.

It is Trump chatter.

It is Biggs chatter.

It is lunacy.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.