This is an opinion column.

Rep. Mo Brooks assembled a crack team, charged with making a plan to reopen Alabama’s economy. Its 14 members included a dentist, a gastroenterologist, an orthopedic surgeon and an Alabama lawmaker who has been fighting for years to execute more prisoners in this state, even if that means bringing back the electric chair.

It should come as no surprise, Brooks’ committee is ready to throw open Alabama’s businesses. In its report to Gov. Kay Ivey, the committee recommended rescinding Alabama’s stay-at-home order immediately.

What was missing from Brooks’ committee? Anyone with a background in epidemiology, public health or infectious diseases.

Brooks, of course, has a troubled relationship with science. In Congress, he’s argued that sea-level rise isn’t the result of climate change but, rather, rocks falling in the water.

And as recently as late February, he argued on Twitter that only the government-run health care systems of foreign countries had coronavirus fatalities and America’s private system had a perfect record.

“American healthcare: ZERO dead. Think about it,” he said on Feb. 26.

Since then, more things have happened and we’ve all had plenty of time at home to think about it. Almost 800,000 Americans have tested positive for the disease and more than 42,000 have died. Our country has more than three times as many cases as any country in the world, at least among those honest enough to share their real numbers.

It’s no wonder the closest thing Brooks could find to an expert in viruses is a bone doctor and a dentist. When it comes to science, he doesn’t have sense enough to delete his own dumb tweets.

Brooks is incapable of changing his mind, and in a blistering statement he released with his committee’s report, he called Ivey’s stay-at-home order a “nanny-state” directive that doesn’t trust individuals to make the best decisions.

Of course, Brooks is livid, and he should be. This crisis has upended and debunked nearly all of his core beliefs.

The idea that people don’t need government assistance? Tell that to anyone who’s still waiting on their stimulus checks.

The belief that private enterprise alone can solve our problems? Tell that to the small businesses relying on loans from the government to stay afloat.

Rugged individualism? There are moments in history when the common good must take precedence. This is one of them.

Brooks has been wrong about most things of consequence, and that could soon become clear to all but his most strident supporters.

To be fair to Brooks, he didn’t assemble this committee on his own initiative. Gov. Kay Ivey’s office asked him, among the seven members of our U.S. House delegation, for such input.

“There’s been no shortage of good ideas,” Ivey said of their contributions on Tuesday. (And thanks to Brooks, no shortage of bad ones.)

And for a moment Tuesday morning, as governors in Tennessee and Georgia barged ahead and threw open their doors, it looked like Alabama might follow. But there’s a Hollywood plot-twist here that few folks, if anyone, outside of the governor’s office saw coming.

Ivey ignored Brooks and his committee of know-betters. She ignored her cavalier peers in neighboring states. She ignored everyone but the experts.

In a press conference at the state capitol, Ivey said that her stay-at-home order would stay in place at least through the end of the month. Her decision about when to lift it would hinge on data, not a date, she said.

"Until we get enough testing done, we can't fully reopen the economy," she said, adding that no one wants to reopen businesses more than her.

Less than 1 percent of Alabamians have been tested for coronavirus, and only 57 of Alabama’s 67 counties have a place where residents can get a test if they need one. That’s not enough, the governor said.

When asked what level of testing she thought would be enough, Ivey deferred completely to the experts.

"My opinion doesn't count,” she said. “It's the health professionals’.”

Imagine that. An elected official listening to people who’ve spent their lives studying the most important issue before us — scientists, experts, people who really know things. We have someone who can tell the difference between what she wants to be true and what actually is. She listened to people who know more than her, not those who think they know more than everybody else.

Who knows how long it will last. This is an unusual occurrence in this place. But for the moment, Alabama has something that looks a lot like …

Leadership?

Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group.

You can follow his work on his Facebook page, The War on Dumb. And on Twitter. And on Instagram.

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