At this point, many of our leaders are either jumping at shadows or salivating over their newfound emergency power, but Kentucky Senator Rand Paul isn’t having any of it, especially when it comes to enacting restrictions with COVID-19 as an excuse.

According to The Hill, with the omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus making its way through the U.S., some leaders have begun throwing around travel restrictions in a vain attempt to slow or stop the spread. Paul has a bit more sense, however, and began dismissing the idea that omicron can be stopped. During a Sunday interview with WABC 770 AM’s John Catsimatidis, he made it clear that restrictions not only won’t work, but they’re also wrong to enforce on the American people.

“The travel bans aren’t going to work. The new variant is in over half of the states in our country. It’s in 40 different countries. There’s no travel ban that’s going to stop this,” Paul said.

“We don’t even yet know whether it’s a good or a bad thing,” Paul added, referring to the variant. “And if it turns out that it’s much less dangerous, and it crowds out the delta variant, it might be a blessing in disguise.”

This echoes the same hope that some doctors have expressed when it comes to omicron. This variant of the virus is so mild that there haven’t been any recorded deaths despite it being far more contagious. This includes Dr. Warner Green who directs the Center for HIV Cure Research at the Gladstone Institute in San Francisco.

“It would be a great thing if, in fact, omicron crowded out delta. If omicron was a less pathogenic virus, that would be very good news for the human race,” said Greene.

Paul pointed out that many of these authoritarian leaders aren’t even waiting for the science, but taking their cues from another knee-jerking authoritarian, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

“They’re based on basically [Anthony] Fauci’s impulse to authoritarianism is what I call it,” Paul said. “His gut reaction — his immediate knee-jerk reaction to everything is to take away your liberty. I mean, look, all they had to hear was a sniff of this new variant from South Africa. And they’re freaking out with all the new things they’re going to require you to do.”

Indeed, there seems to be very little to panic about according to the data on omicron, and it’s doing what viruses do which is become far more contagious and far less deadly. The information about omicron’s lack of danger has been available at a glance for some time now and yet there are still leaders who want to practice authoritarianism.

One has to wonder at which point their claims of “doing it for your safety” are just a mask for scratching an authoritarian itch, and reaping whatever benefits these leaders get out of it.