The Politicized Coronavirus Panic is Doing More Harm Than the Disease.
March 12, 2020 7:35am
Stop the hysteria! We have completely lost our minds. The media-induced fear of the COVID-19 Coronavirus has now turned into a full-blown societal panic that will cause far more damage than the disease itself ever could.
This is not the Black Plague! It is a viral respiratory infection that will cause flu-like symptoms for a week or two among young and healthy people. Ninety-nine percent will fully recover. The elderly and infirm do face a higher risk of death. But even that survival rate exceeds 85%.
The government has told us not to go on cruise ships. Airlines have canceled thousands of flights. Travel plans have been canceled. Entire cities are quarantined. Schools have closed. Consumer goods are becoming scarce because of supply chain disruptions and hoarding. The FDA has reported shortages of some drugs. The NBA suspended their season. The March Madness NCAA Basketball Tournament will be played in arenas devoid of fans. Concerts and festivals have been canceled. The National Association of Broadcasters convention, the fourth largest convention in America, previously scheduled for April 19 - 22, was canceled yesterday. It was far from alone. Sunday's Democratic primary debate in Arizona will be held without a live audience. Scheduled military exercises aren't happening. Religious institutions have been shuttered. Even the Haj pilgrimage to Mecca has been seriously curtailed.
The unjustified, media-driven fear has managed to destroy the strong American economy in just a few weeks. Yesterday, the Dow ended its eleven year bull market run by closing in bear-market territory; a 20% decline from its high. The S&P 500 will almost certainly follow suit when markets open today.
Democrats and the media - but I repeat myself - have realized they can use this virus and the massive economic damage the fear is causing to bludgeon President Trump. By hyping the story beyond all reasonable proportions, they believe they can do what the Russian collusion hoax and phony impeachment couldn't do; bring down the President of the United States. With that as their goal, this panic will be encouraged until Election Day. And by then, our economy will make the Great Recession look like the good ol' days.
And no tax cut will cure our economic woes because our problem is not that consumers lack money (at least not yet). The problem is that people are afraid to go out and spend their money going about their daily lives.
It was President Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, who said. "You never want a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before." This coronavirus "crisis" is certainly causing us to do things we could not do before. A crisis can be natural or man-made.
The proposed "solutions" to this "crisis" all come from a bigger, more intrusive national government. And we seem willing to accept it because we fear we will otherwise die.
I'm not one to believe in conspiracy theories. But the perfectly coordinated worldwide execution of the coronavirus scare makes me wonder. I am not saying the COVID-19 Coronavirus is a global conspiracy. But I am saying such a theory is "not impossible." And if I were to write a novel about a global conspiracy by intelligence agencies - both foreign and domestic - to bring down the President of the United States, it would align with today's real-world events.
As President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said in his first inaugural address, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts."
Well, I refuse to live in fear. I will wash my hands and carry on. And I'll be on a commercial airplane this afternoon.