© Reuters / Shannon Stapleton
Former Education Secretary Bill Bennett has been savaged online for suggesting that the coronavirus is "not a pandemic" and calling for the lifting of lockdown measures, as the debate rages over reopening the shuttered US economy.
More than half a million Americans have caught the coronavirus, with just over 22,000 passing away. While the numbers are dire, the University of Washington's forecasters revised their total predicted Covid-19 deaths down to 60,000 last week, a number comparable to deaths from
Influenza in 2017-2018, and significantly lower than the six-figure
death toll floated by President Donald Trump's top medical advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, last month.
"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...shut down the churches," Bennett said on Monday's edition of Fox and Friends. "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."
The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic on March 11 and it has been reported in almost every country around the world. Bennett was flayed online for his "aggressively stupid" statement.
"Bill Bennett may be a self-proclaimed ethics expert, but he obviously knows very little about logic and cause-and-effect," wrote author Ward Carroll.
"It is deeply irresponsible to air this view on national television,"
tweeted CNN's Chris Cillizza, while neoconservative pundit Bill Kristol suggested the low death toll was a direct result of the government scaring "the hell out of the American people."
Modeling the spread of infectious diseases is an imprecise science. While the University of Washington's researchers attribute their revised predictions to "
crucial" social distancing measures and recommend they remain in place until the end of May, many initial predictions about the virus were wrong.
When it first entered the US in January, media outlets urged Americans not to panic, warning them that the flu was a more imminent threat. These same outlets now tell a different story. Likewise, Fauci himself said in February that there was "no need to change anything you're doing on a day to day basis." On Sunday, he told CNN's Jake Tapper that the government "could have saved lives" if social distancing started earlier.With commentators on the right demanding a relaxation of lockdown rules, and Trump's advisors telling the president - to quote Fauci - that "the virus decides" when things return to normal, no clear path forward is obvious.
Over the weekend, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear (D) threatened anyone attending in-person church services with misdemeanor violations and promised to record the license plates of attendees and force them to self-isolate for two weeks. A conservative backlash ensued, with churchgoers just one group tiring of the lockdown measures.Some Governors and mayors have insisted that they'll lock down their states and cities for as long as necessary, should Trump lift restrictions in May. Connecticut's Ned Lamont, for example, has extended his state's stay-at-home order until at least May 30,
saying "now is not the time to take our foot off the accelerator."
However, Trump has insisted that he has the power to order the states to resume business as usual, and blamed the "fake news media" for stating otherwise. A decision on reopening the American economy, he tweeted on Monday, "will be made shortly."
Reader Comments
The authoritarian mind boggles at the limitless options and endless opportunities.
Will this not only accelerate the decline, has the 'boil the frog' strategy run its course?
I dunno about you, but I've long felt hot and overcooked.*
RC
* But, will we "taste like chicken?"
For a pretty good mid-90s article on phase transitions, complex non-linear systems, chaos and self-organization see, "When Web and Chaos Theory Meet, The Future Could be Weird" at this [Link]
The sh*t has hit the fan and now it's going to become interesting because 'systems' on a path of self-destruction โ STS systems in other words โ cannot constructively self-organize into new, more highly functional states.
And that is why, in the end, evil. always. fails.
A new system change is also an opportunity for us, we shouldn't await their next move but use the chaos for ourselves as well.
And that is why the grifters are running shit scared, but they're so in the thrall of their own wishful thinking they can't see squat other than if they don't clamp down on their screw up with the virus the came out of Ft Detrick they'll lose much, if not all of what they working towards for a long, long time.
If you (re)read the latest Cs session at this [Link] you'll see why the grifters are scared, and why, now, they are openly playing their bluffing, losing hand:
Q: (L) Okay, moving along. Next question:
Has this whole situation/reaction/measures in so many countries been planned?
(L) In other words, I think they are asking was it all planned in advance?
A: No, but plans along similar lines were activated to take advantage of opportunity.
Q: (Joe) Was this at the level of the World Health Organization? Or... What body was involved in implementing these plans?
A: Secret consortium of which the WHO is just a tool.
[And little Billy Know-nothing Gates is a convenient, and expendable foot soldier running step-and-fetch-it errands for his masters]
Q: (L) Okay. Another person asks:
Where is the safest place for us to be during the existing and upcoming turmoil?
A: Any place is safe to the knowledgeable person. Do you have the energy and resources to change?
Q: (L) And I guess it also comes down to if you have knowledge and you're in a high-stress environment, you can be safe but it takes a lot of energy for that, too. If you would like to reduce your stress and energy expenditure or if you NEED to reduce them, then you should make changes?
A: Yes
Q: (L) Okay, so...
(Joe) The most obvious effect of these measures that they're putting in place is a kind of pseudo-totalitarian lock down essentially. Can we assume that that was one of the agendas: to impose those lock downs on people?
A: Yes, total control. But it was not necessarily envisioned as lock down in this way.
Q: (Joe) It kinda got beyond their...
(L) What changed their...
(Andromeda) Approach?
(Joe) "But it was not necessarily envisioned as lock down in this way."
(Pierre) How was it envisioned initially?
A: Control. But a special factor entered. We are aware of your earlier discussions and questions, so perhaps we can explain.
Q: (L) I think this is gonna be a long one... Okay, let me light a cigarette before this starts.
(Scottie) Do special arm stretches. We need squirty water bottles for you three.
(L) We need trainers to come put towels around us and spray us with water bottles. [laughter]
(Scottie) Jack your chairs up, replace the tires, and then... VROOM!
(L) Alright, here we go. We're ready!
A: The virus did not appear first in China. There were experiments at Fort Detrick regarding the creation of a vaccine that would make humans more controllable. This vaccine had unexpected effects and in some cases did the opposite of what was intended. The strain escaped into a population and further mutated. Indeed it was carried to China by US soldiers. China soon knew the type and origin and launched a massive campaign to control the situation. This was seen by Western powers as a good model to follow with additional add-on factors. In the meantime further mutations have occurred, some engineered via STO forces by virtue of the virus taking hold in certain persons whose spiritual force was able to direct the progression. At this point, there are two major strains. The elite need to stop the spread of that which they "created".
Q: (L) So they need to stop that which they have created because in some cases, it does the opposite of what they wanted it to do?
A: Yes and this is the interesting factor: The virus can change DNA making individuals more susceptible to cosmic information of the STO variety. It can also enhance and activate long suppressed codons of a beneficial nature. So you can see why they are so desperate to halt the spread.
Q: (L) If they're so desperate to halt the spread, theyโre not testing anyone! They're assuming everyone is infected... Well, I guess that's why they're locking everyone down. That's why it's a lock down.
(Andromeda) They really don't want people to spread it. They're really afraid.
(L) And it's not because people may die. People are not dying anywhere near the numbers that they die from regular flu. They have manipulated the system so that emergency rooms and ICUs are stacked with apparent CV patients, but that may not be so.
(Pierre) And lock down and quarantine are very effective methods to contain epidemics โ witness the Black Death.
(Joe) The reason they're telling everyone it's deadly and imposing the lock down is to stop the spread of the virus because it has kind of positive effects. And they are attaching other agendas to it, including financial melt-down, money controls, and so forth.
(Gaby) But that means this virus has been out there in the world for awhile now...
(Andromeda) How long has it been circulating?
A: More than two years.
Q: (L) But it took awhile to mutate and do other things.
(Pierre) Did some people here have the virus?
A: Nearly all of you!
Where is the safest place for us to be during the existing and upcoming turmoil?
A: Any place is safe to the knowledgeable person. Do you have the energy and resources to change?
Social distancing does not save any lives. How the hell would it even do that? People who believe that haven't thought about it for even 5 seconds. We have nothing that can stop the virus. And slowing it down does not prevent any deaths.