6 Things Democrats and the Media Want You to Believe About the Coronavirus
And why every one of them is absurd.
Thu May 21, 2020
Don Feder
"Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things." "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." -- The Red Queen in “Alice in Wonderland.”
In the spirit of Her Majesty, here are six impossible things about the coronavirus Democrats and the media want you to believe, as well as an explanation of why each is absurd.
1.
China bears no responsibility for this pandemic – All the Chi-coms did was to deny the possibility of human-to-human transmission for as long as they could, destroy or remove tissue samples from the Wuhan lab, allow travel outside China (while banning it within the country), force physicians and researchers who tried to alert us to the danger early on to recant (they made one disappear) and stockpile medical supplies while refusing to admit there was a problem. Other than that, not much.
2.
COVID-19 doesn’t discriminate: Old and young, sick and well – all are equally susceptible – You might as well say that an octogenarian is as likely to injure himself skateboarding as a 16-year-old. In Pennsylvania, the median age of death from COVID-19 is 84 years. Overall, the probability of death from the virus in the United States is 1.5 in 10,000. But for those under 55 who are healthy, it’s 1.5 in 100,000. In 14 states that report these statistics, nursing homes accounted for half of all coronavirus deaths. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule – which the media love to play up. But, overwhelmingly, the victims are elderly, with a pre-existing condition.
3.
This epidemic is like a war. Some civil liberties have to be temporarily suspended as a matter of national survival. – In the name of combating the coronavirus, Americans have been denied freedom to work, freedom of movement, freedom of religion (with houses of worship closed) and freedom of speech. Protests are permitted, as long as there aren’t more than 10 people and everyone is wearing face masks and standing at least 6 feet apart. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said he wasn’t thinking about the Bill of Rights when implementing social-distancing guidelines. No kidding.
4.
Social distancing and face masks work – New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was “shocked” to discover recently that 66% of new coronavirus hospitalizations were among people “largely sheltering at home.” Proximity of one person to another has little to do with the spread of the disease, nor do the sacred face masks stop transmission. Both are largely symbolic as well as a form of virtue-flashing. When the virus first reached our shores, the experts told us that face masks were useless, unless you’re a medical professional using the type of masks not available to the general public. Now we’re told we must wear them – even if they’re makeshift. There’s no science behind this. They’re meant to assure us that politicians are doing all they can to keep us safe. Then, when fatalities decline, which happens in the normal course of any epidemic, they’ll demand that we thank them for saving us.
5.
Damage to the economy is the price we have to pay to stop a deadly contagion. That’s easy to say if you work for government – which is now our only growth industry. While the coronavirus regimen that statists adore has done little, if anything, to halt the spread of the disease, it’s put our economy in the ICU. We lost 870,000 jobs in March and 20.5 million in April. The Wall Street Journal notes that this is the fastest economic collapse in our history – all so governors would have another opportunity to play big brother and bring us closer to the Democratic utopia. No one asked unemployed auto workers or the depressed who are out of work and can’t afford the co-pay on their meds if they were willing to pay the price.
6.
The shutdown doesn’t favor one party or the other– In fact, it’s a gift from heaven for Democrats. They’re using the shutdown to destroy the Trump economy and push a bailout of bankrupt blue states. They’re also using the virus to get mail-in ballots, increasing the opportunities for voter fraud, the sine qua non of the Democratic party. The governors fighting hardest to maintain the status quo -- Cuomo, Wolf, Pritzker, Northam and Newson, among others – are Democrats, as are their congressional allies, Speaker Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Schumer. Why – because they’re dedicated public health or partisan politics?
It’s just possible that supporters of the shutdown want to make America look more like China. Welcome to the new normal.
