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Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, Founder and President of the Ruth Institute, expressed concern over the public health establishment’s back and forth attitude toward individual risk-taking.

“If young people using Grindr can make their own risk-taking decisions about sex, why can’t elderly people make their own risk-taking decision about hugs?” Morse said.

Morse’s comments were in reaction to the April 15^th Vanity Fair interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In regards to people using dating apps like Tinder or Grinder, Fauci said,

“If you’re willing to take a risk—and you know, everybody has their own tolerance for risks—you could figure out if you want to meet somebody. And it depends on the level of the interaction that you want to have. If you’re looking for a friend, sit in a room and put a mask on, and you know, chat a bit. If you want to go a little bit more intimate, well, then that’s your choice regarding a risk.”

Morse said,

“Dr. Fauci was at his scientific best when he stated that asymptomatic carriers of the Wuhan virus could infect strangers whom they meet on dating apps. But he could not bring himself to say, ‘therefore, stop using these apps. You don’t need to have sex with strangers, especially not during a global pandemic.’”

Morse noted that casual sex routinely spreads syphilis, gonorrhea and HIV.

“Surely Dr. Fauci knows that having sex with someone is much more dangerous than shaking hands or hugging. Yet elderly people are dying alone, unhugged and untouched, out of fear of spreading the Wuhan virus via asymptomatic carriers.”

Morse, author of six books on marriage, family, and human sexuality, stated that social isolation is itself harmful, especially for people with health vulnerabilities. She asked,

“Why can’t the family decide whether the risk is worth the benefits of hugging their loved ones, or even being in the same room with them? The nursing homes and hospices are reporting heartbreaking scenes of elderly people waving to their loved ones through the window, sometimes unable to understand why their grandchildren cannot come in and hug them. The inconsistency on the part of the public health establishment makes no sense.”

Morse speculated,

“Perhaps the disparity is due to the fact that those who are called ‘sexually active’ have a lobby which will fight to protect their rights to engage in whatever sexual activity they want. Ordinary families who want to interact in a humane and civilized manner, seemingly have no lobby.”