I’m very hesitant to write about the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (or COVID-19) while we’re still in the middle of this mess, while we’re watching the daily death toll, before all the facts are in. At any rate, I’ll try to present my thoughts here as coherently as possible in the face of insufficient facts and a rapidly changing situation.
Of course, I’m well aware of all the controversy surrounding the debate about accurate death count, and flattening the curve, and closing down the American economy, and the talk of Chinese bioweapons and martial law and microchips to seize control of America. I’ve had to suffer through all of that this past six weeks watching the news and watching this “crisis” unfold.
I’m seeing otherwise clear-thinking Conservative – many of my own friends – starting to buy into the hysteria and hype, asking questions about whether we’re seeing our Constitutional rights put on hold in order to combat COVID-19, and fearing that an extended economic depression is on the horizon.
I attribute all of that to ya’ll just having too damn much time on your (very clean and well washed) hands with everything shut down!
Then this past Monday morning I watched Bill Bennett speak on Fox News. Bennett served as Secretary of Education under President Reagan, and as the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under President Bush the Elder. He’s an intelligent and experienced guy, and a respected conservative pundit and political theorist.
Bennett made the case on Monday that during the seasonal flu from October 2017 to February 2018, 61,000 Americans died from the “regular flu”. He then contrasted that with “only” about 20,000 (already) dead from COVID-19. Then he predicted about 60,000 dead from COVID-19 when this is all over, which is in line with what the President’s COVID-19 Task Force is currently predicting.
In summary Bennett was saying that President Trump had overreacted and that shutting down the American economy was unnecessary. He went on to say that it would probably “take years to fully recover”… and he may be right on that point.
At any rate, hearing Bennett’s remarks, I felt that I really needed to post my thoughts about COVID-19 as the situation stands today.
Let me start by explaining that COVID-19 is NOT the “regular flu” that Bennett used to contrast in his remarks, and most of you already know that.
Even after all of the extreme countermeasures we’ve taken here in America – the social distancing, shutting down the economy and schools, etc. – just between March 31st and yesterday April 13th – 14 days… in just 2 weeks – 18,938 Americans have died from COVID-19 and conditions directly related to COVID-19, like strokes or heart attacks brought on by the disease, for example. And yes, I know those numbers are controversial.
Let’s put that into perspective. 18,938 dead Americans is equal to:
– D-Day… 6,600 Americans dead
– 9/11… 2,950
– The entire Iraq War… 7,000
– The entire Afghan War… 2,400
Total = 18,950
In my opinion Bennett’s comments from Monday were irresponsible, and I want to make three points here…
First, the October 2017 – February 2018 death toll of 61,000 from “regular flu” was the WORST death toll from flu in 40 years, so it’s hardly an average yard stick by which to measure seasonal flu death, or to compare to COVID-19 death. Most years the death toll from “regular flu” is more like 30,000 to 40,000, and often much lower – as low as 10,000 to 12,000.
Second, although we may not see more than 60,000 dead to COVID-19, we are also still seeing ALL of those same “regular flu” deaths at the same time! COVID is not the only virus killing people in America right now. The COMBINED death toll of COVID AND the “regular flu” may eclipse 100,000!
Lastly, making flippant statements like “… automobile accidents kill more than 30,000 Americans every year, and cancer kills more than a half million annually” overlooks the fact that – just like the “regular flu” deaths mentioned above – those deaths are also STILL OCCURRING… and the last time I checked cancer wasn’t something that you could catch from someone else sneezing on you.
Others are quick to point out that the Swine Flu epidemic of 2008-2009 took 12,000 American lives and there was no panic, no shut down. That is a specious analogy. We’ve lost more Americans to COVID-19 in just the last 7 days than the entire death toll of Swine Flu, so it’s probably a good thing we reacted so quickly and strongly.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a serious matter. Was it serious enough to shut down the U.S. economy over? Maybe. Maybe not. But if we had NOT taken extreme measures, we would almost certainly be looking at 60,000 or more dead today, with that number on the rise, instead of flattening out or hopefully declining.
COVID-19 is almost certainly not a Chinese bioweapon – at least there’s zero real evidence of that right now, although conspiracy theories abound. It very well could have been an accidental release of a contagion from a bio-weapon research facility, simply due to Chinese sloppiness. After all they do eat bats. But if it were an intentional test of a bioweapon why test it out on their own people in Wuhan – still the epicenter of the pandemic? The target for a Chinese bioweapon would have been some city in Europe or America.
COVID-19 is also not something that oozes out of people because of exposure to 5G radio frequencies (yeah, that’s actually another conspiracy theory), nor did Bill Gates create it to seize control of the Human race by developing a cure with a microchip in it. Nor did the Democratic National Party or MSNBC News conspire with the Chinese to bring this contagion to America’s shores!
COVID-19 is a virus. And there are other “Corona viruses” out there, which is why the term “novel” is assigned to this one. This is the first time we’ve seen this particular version of this specific Corona virus, but the Corona family of viruses is not new.
There are many other common viruses of course; Smallpox, the common cold, many different seasonal flues (the “regular flu”), Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Chicken Pox and Shingles, Hepatitis… and on and on.
Right now, COVID-19 has our medics a stumped, but it’s not an end-of-the-world event! We’ll figure it out. We’ve already developed countermeasures and we’ll eventually come up with a vaccine.
At the moment COVID-19 does appear to be more lethal than most types of “regular flu” at perhaps 1-2%, but it’s not the deadliest virus by far. Marburg virus is 25% lethal. Ebola virus has a 50% or higher lethality. Rabies is 100% lethal without immediate treatment.
As I mentioned previously, the common set of flu viruses we typically see in America every year during “flu season” between October and February or March kills between 10 and 60 THOUSAND Americans annually, and yet we all go about our business as if nothing is happening at all.
So why all the hype? Why the panic and fear and hysteria? Why collapse our economy even over 60,000 dead Americans?
Looking back, as the threat from COVID-19 first emerged in December of 2019 and January of 2020, the American Socialist Liberals in the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and in the mainstream media were fixated on impeaching President Trump. They had all of their hopes tied to that effort. But on February 5th, when President Trump was acquitted of all charges, they were suddenly frantic… as if they had actually expected some different outcome. They needed something else to hang around Trump’s neck, something new they could ride through to the election, anything to keep up the pressure on him.
In early February the Corona Virus was barely a news story. Only a few hundred had died and all in China. But within a few weeks it began to dawn on Liberals that if COVID-19 became a problem in America – and it was looking ever more likely that it would – they just might be able to bury President Trump under the death toll.
By early March the media was in full swing ready to spread fear and hysteria over this “extinction level event”. They even began trying out the moniker “Trump’s Katrina”.
During the weeks since then, Liberals have managed to force President Trump’s hand gearing up an enormous response to COVID-19, spending trillions of dollars and crashing our economy. Had this not been a Presidential election year I believe Trump’s response would have been more cautious and reserved. But it is an election year and Trump’s hands were tied.
Is it justified? Maybe. The death toll over this next two or three weeks should show if it is or not.
One thing is certain; the MSM and the DNC hate President Trump, and if he isn’t very careful, he’ll be crucified over his response to COVID-19 and “… the blood of 10s of thousands of Americans will be on his hands”.
But over this past several weeks President Trump did something Liberals were not expecting – he rose to the occasion, organized a massive whole-of-government response and initiated a daily 2-hour press briefing to let America know all that was happening, and to debunk Liberal propaganda.
Genius.
In response the American people did something that the Liberals also did not expect. They rallied together behind their President and Trump’s popularity has soared. That’s why several Liberal news outlets refuse to carry the President’s daily press briefing live, choosing instead to present carefully edited excerpts – only the bits that support their narrative of fear and panic and those which portray “… an incompetent administration on the verge of collapse and incapable of adequately responding to the crisis at hand”.
It’s already mid-April, so if COVID-19 claims even 30,000 or 40,000 lives here in the United States, it will probably only be equal to a bad flu season and the collapse of America’s economy in response will probably be judged to have not been justified.
But if COVID-19 winds up killing 100,000 to 150,000 as is still being predicted, then the temporary damage to our economy WILL have been justified… at least in my humble opinion.
But by all means, you play God and you do the math yourself. How many Americans are you willing to sacrifice to keep our economy humming along. Yeah, that’s all well and good as long as it’s not YOUR family dying right? There’s a line out there somewhere – there has to be.
But either way – in a couple of months – once this “crisis” has passed we’ll get back to our normal lives. We’ll get back to work and our kids will get back to school. We’ll quickly resurrect the strongest economy in human history, exact economic retribution against China for their atrocious behavior (yeah, that’s gotta happen!)… and REELECT PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP!
Americans will remember – with the help of RNC political ads, of course – who delayed the relief bills and tried to stuff them with pork.
We’ll remember watching Liberals at the press conferences more concerned about what to call this virus than combating it.
We’ll remember how Liberal State governments released criminals from prisons at the same time they tried (and failed) to curtail our Second Amendment rights by closing gun stores, and even contemplating the confiscation of firearms.
We’ll remember the misreporting by Liberal news agencies of federal support to COVID hot spots like New York and the hatred spewed out by insane Liberals on the “My Pillow guy” and to Falwell’s Samaritan’s Purse just for being Christians and wanting to help.
Former Vice President Joe Biden will be destroyed on the debate stage by President Trump if he tries to defend the Obama administrations ill-preparedness for any sort of reasonable response to a pandemic.
And just over this past couple of days, as President Trump tells America that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that we can probably “re-open” the country and restart our economy over the next five or six weeks, we’ll see Liberal governments shouting that the sky is still falling and they’ll drag their heals against lifting bans on business, despite the damage that will so clearly be seen by their local constituents.
Liberals will oppose the re-opening of our economy in the same way the opposed the China travel ban, the use of hydroxychloroquine, and just today they oppose President Trump shutting off funding to the World Health Organization. No matter what Liberals must oppose every action President Trump takes, regardless of how many Americans may die as a result.
Maybe I’m completely wrong and the death toll will “only” be 20,000 Americans, and history will record that this was a complete over-reaction.
But my point is that it really doesn’t matter. All that matters is how we had to shoot our economy in the foot to keep the Liberal maniacs in the DNC and the mainstream media from politicizing a true tragedy, and hanging this whole thing – this tragic and unavoidable death of tens of thousands of Americans – around President Trump’s neck the same way they hung the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina around President Bush’s neck.
Remember that it was former Obama adviser Rahm Emanuel – the mayor of Chicago until just last year – who famously said, “Never allow a crisis to go to waste,” and American Socialist Liberals have taken that advice to heart.
