The United States is suffering through the slow torture of a painful unprecedented calamity. But enough about Donald Trump. The American people are enduring a hardship of mammoth proportions that is threatening both their health and economic welfare. It’s a challenge that requires a shared resolve to stare clear-eyed into the abyss of a frightful future.
For the most part, Americans have been meeting this challenge with courage and a determination to prevail over the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. Victory demands facing their troubles honestly and not being afraid to recognize difficult truths. It’s too bad that these efforts are made all the more difficult by the ignorant and dangerous misinformation that is disseminated by Trump and Fox News.
On Monday morning, the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends interviewed former Reagan Secretary of Education, Bill Bennett, a Fox contributor. His profoundly idiotic remarks made it hard to connect him with any office where education was involved. Co-host Brian Kilmeade asked Bennett to comment on the 22,000+ deaths so far. This is what Bennett – and Fox News – are still shoving down America’s throat (video below):
Bennett: Now they say 60,000 people will die. 61,000 is what we lost to the flu in 2017 and 2018. The flu […] If you look at those numbers and see the comparable, we’re gonna have fewer fatalities from this than from the flu.
“For this we scared the hell out of the American people. We lost 17 million jobs. We put a major dent in the economy. We closed down the schools. You heard Dr. Oz say we didn’t have to do that. We shut down the churches and so on. You know, this was not and is not a pandemic. But we do have panic and pandemonium as a result of the hype of this.”
Kilmeade: Well, it is labeled a pandemic.
The measure of mendacity in those comments is hard to quantify. Let’s start with Bennett’s trivialization of the deaths attributed to COVID-19. His comparison of the coronavirus to the flu is absurd. The 61,000 deaths from the flu occurred over the course of a year. And he chose a particularly bad year. The 2018-2019 season saw half that many flu deaths. The 60,000 estimated deaths from the coronavirus would be over a few months. Also, the fatality rate for the coronavirus is much higher.
What’s more, the lowered projections are only because many states implemented their own “Stay at Home” orders and other precautionary guidelines that Trump foolishly neglected. Those guidelines must remain in effect if we are to avoid much higher rates of fatalities. But Bennett is advocating dropping those guidelines, which would result in a second wave that could be even worse than the first.
Bennett’s assertion that COVID-19 “was not and is not a pandemic” is beyond stupid. It’s a wholly dishonest attempt to deceive people that could end up costing many more lives. Kilmeade’s weak interjection that the virus is “labeled” a pandemic is hardly sufficient to correct the record. It is not “labeled” a pandemic. It IS a pandemic. That would be like saying that Hurricane Katrina was merely labeled a hurricane.
It would be bad enough if this interview took place in early February when Trump and the rest of his right-wing enablers were still saying that it was “totally under control,” with only five victims and it was “going down to zero” in a couple of days. But airing this now, after half a million Americans were infected and 22,000 died, tells us that Fox News still isn’t through misinforming the public about the risks of this pandemic. And if Fox News isn’t through, then neither is Trump.
Indeed, Trump is currently forming plans to “reopen” the country by May 1, a date that no health expert has endorsed. But then, his only considerations are for his bank account and his reelection prospects.
How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.
Fox News contributor Bill Bennett compares coronavirus to the flu, claiming that "this was not and is not a pandemic." pic.twitter.com/Q4oBcXKISV
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) April 13, 2020
61,000 died from the flu over 2 yrs.
60,000 in US could be dead within months.
Did the flu overwhelm the hospitals like this has? (No.)
Wasn’t it influenza virus, not coronavirus? We have some immunity to influenza (normal type flu bug) virus. This is very different, in few ways…in that it is ‘NOVEL’… meaning a brand-new strain of CORONA-virus & human bodies have no immunity yet to fight it off. INFLUENZA virus causes the common flu that we normally get & we get over it, building up a general immunity over time. Even so, it can turn into pneumonia, which can/does kill people.
The current CORONA-virus is looking like it MAY be mutation of SARS…we will know more as they are able to study it more, like they’re doing now. It takes time. Anyone who thinks they can find all the answers faster, should offer their services, or STHU! That includes the dunderheads on FauxNews!
Another difference with this virus is how fast & how easily it is spread from person-to-person, even up to 2wks before a person has any symptoms to know they’re sick.
How often have you seen the common flu bug ravage & spread thru entire countries like this 1 has? (My guess would be not since 1918.)
The last thing we need now is for people to go on TV media & put out false info to further confuse things.
The other last thing we need right now is a stupid SOB in WH who only cares about money & getting re-elected + has too many people with own agendas telling him different things, when he isn’t smart enuff to know who to listen to & really DOES NOT CARE how many Americans die; only cares about his wants.
Most unfortunately, we are totally screwed on that last thing we do not need right now. That is exactly what we’re stuck with!
“REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER!” …& VOTE!
When science fiction writers create an alternate reality where the rules of the real world are bent or bypassed (as with faster-than-light travel), they are usually careful to make sure that the world they conjure up is consistent within the new rules they’ve created.
What Fux News, like their deity Trump, does is to lie, contradict themselves and fail to present a consistent view of the world. Their version of reality changes whenever necessary to suit their whims. No good science fiction writer would do that unless those inconsistencies were the key to the story.
Still not sure why Bill Bennett, hypocritical gambler, is asked to provide his counterfeit two cents on ANYTHING….
Hey, Mark! Seanny had a brain fart today and accidentally defined himself and his Church of the Submoron. Have fun!
Shame Seanny is too much of a fool to realize what he just said: the Fux Spews Cycle in a nutshell. Seanny’s tertiary moronity led me to post this on Media Matters a few days ago:
And, as WC Fields once said, “Thereby hangs a cocktail….”
Hey Kali ~ That was perfect template for FuxSpews news cycles! Thanks for making me smile for a few… You nailed it alright!
*¥* But what was Ol’ “Waterboard Shammity” referring to? Not his own FuxSpews, right?!