Pandemic Deniers

Like many people in America I am forced to exercise social distancing practices. Lately I've had a lot of time to watch YouTube and Daily motion, more on that later. I'm not an expert in infectious diseases or pandemics. However I do know that there are people that live and breathe that sort of thing. They constantly study human viruses the same way I study computer viruses. I will also say that I'm not really an expert in political science. The only time I tend to follow politics is when it relates to things like net neutrality, software patents or when the Trump administration got rid of the cyber security coordinator. I thought that was nuts.

I was reading today that the Trump Campaign Threatens Lawsuit Over Political Ad Featuring President Labeling Convid 19 a' Hoax'.. Now I'm not saying I have a perfect memory. But I do remember pacifically Trump using those words when he came to concerns about the pandemic. The AD was put out by Priorities USA Action. It shows a chart of Convid 19 cases that rose as Trump's past comments downplaying the virus played in the background.

So I went to YouTube and Daily motion, to get the exact quotes from what was said about The hoax...

Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus. You know that, right? Coronavirus. They’re politicizing it. We did one of the great jobs . . . They tried the impeachment hoax. That was on a perfect conversation. They tried anything, they tried it over and over, they’ve been doing it since you got in. It’s all turning, they lost, it’s all turning. Think of it. Think of it. And this is their new hoax. But you know, we did something that’s been pretty amazing. We’re 15 people [cases of coronavirus infection] in this massive country. And because of the fact that we went early, we went early, we could have had a lot more than that . . . we’ve lost nobody, and you wonder, the press is in hysteria mode.“

Now one can argue that he was not calling the concerned about Convid 19 the "new hoax". But that's what his allies heard...

All the talk about coronavirus being so much more deadly [than the flu] doesn’t reflect reality,” Mar 7 -Fox News host Jeanine Pirro.

At worst — worst case scenario — it could be the flu,”  Mar 6 -Fox News medical correspondent Marc Siegel [a physician]

“This is yet another attempt to impeach the president,”  Mar 9 -Fox Business host Trish Regan

“They’re scaring the living hell out of people and I see it again as like, ‘Oh, let’s bludgeon Trump with this new hoax.’” Mar 9 -Hannity

But I’m telling you, folks, I have — there’s so many red flags about things happening out there. This coronavirus, they’re just — all of this panic is just not warranted. This, I’m telling you, when I tell you — when I’ve told you that this virus is the common cold.  -Mar 11  Rush Limbaugh, The Rush Limbaugh Show

Even in a Pro-Trump Facebook Group for firefighters and paramedics shared memes and conspiracy theories doubting the pandemic. "Every election year has a disease,” read one meme, purporting to be written on a doctor’s office whiteboard. “This is a viral-pneumonia being hyped as The Black Plague before an election.”

This coronavirus?” Rush Limbaugh asked skeptically on his show, “Nothing like wiping out the entire U.S. economy with a bio-threat from China, is there?”

So if Trump at that rally wasn't referring to the coming pandemic as a hoax. If he wasn't referring to the rising concerns of Convid 19 as a hoax. Why is it that his allies heard him say it?  Why did they in turn call it a hoax if he didn't call it hoax first?

Now everything Trump has said can be seen and heard across the web. There is video from several sources. It all started back in January of this year...

 “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. We have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.” —Jan. 22 Trump in a CNBC interview.

“We think we have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five — and those people are all recuperating successfully. But we’re working very closely with China and other countries, and we think it’s going to have a very good ending for us … that I can assure you.” Jan 30 — Trump in a speech in Michigan.

“Now, the virus that we’re talking about having to do — you know, a lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat — as the heat comes in. Typically, that will go away in April. We’re in great shape though. We have 12 cases — 11 cases, and many of them are in good shape now.” Feb 10 — Trump at the White House.

It was also  Hannity that cited a comment from a “MIT guy on Twitter” who said that “coronavirus fear-mongering by the deep state will go down in history as one of the biggest frauds to manipulate economies, suppress dissent and push mandated medicines.”

Trump and his administration did repeatedly downplay the convid 19 and delivered mixed messages. Even now, Trump has said he'd like to reopen businesses by Easter, an idea public-health professionals have warned against. 

The Priorities USA Action ad speaks for itself...


Is the need for ventilators the "new hoax"?
"I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You know, you go into major hospitals, sometimes they’ll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden they're saying, 'can we order 30,000 ventilators?'"- Mar 26 Trump
Republican leaders need to start trusting in science instead of Trump. They need to start fearing this pandemic instead of Trump.