A North Carolina Technology Association board member suggested that the state is overreacting with its COVID-19 response and is failing to consider the "potential collateral damage" that may result from the policies enacted.
Mark Dirks made his comments in a July 23 Facebook post where he also said he trusts his analysis versus what "the media is shoving down my throat," and "we can't wait indefinitely for a vaccine and the facts just don't support it. The collateral damage could be monumental."
The CEO of Beacon Technologies said that at the time of his Facebook post, North Carolina reported 1,698 deaths out of 1.5 million tests. Of the 1,698 COVID-19-related deaths, 361 were of people under the age of 65.
Based on his analysis, Dirks said that the government should not be allowed to determine which businesses can be open and at what level.
"I believe business owners, their employees and their patrons should decide how they want to approach COVID-19," he said in his post, adding that the government should only have the authority to make recommendations. "... We should all recognize that most people will do their best to follow the rules, but as with anything, some won't, no matter what."
Dirks said that given the number of reported cases and the survival rate of 98.4% of all age groups in North Carolina that it shows the human body is capable of fighting off the virus. His belief, he said, should not be thought of as him "being disrespectful," however, "but unless we've created a society that doesn't expect to ever get sick, then we should get everyone back to work under all the guidelines that have been proposed."
The tech CEO suggested that governments' reaction to the coronavirus has created a fundamental shift in society.
"I'm a little concerned that we have just take a large step toward socialism where the government can choose to shut down businesses and pay people to stay home and not work by providing stimulus checks and increased unemployment benefits," he said. "When we look back, the collateral damage will likely outweigh the direct damage from COVID. No one seems to care about this."
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