What’s worse: Donald Trump Jr. claiming that deaths from coronavirus are now “almost nothing” or Fox News host Laura Ingraham allowing the lie to stand?
Yesterday, The New York Times reported there were 1004 deaths from coronavirus, a 16% increase over the last 14 days. New U.S. cases of coronavirus reached a new high yesterday, with 87,164 new cases, surpassing the previous high of 83,731 just six days before. The Times noted:
Case numbers in the United States have reached alarming new records in recent days as outbreaks continue to grow across the country. Though rural counties and small metro areas continue to see some of the worst growth, infections are also rising rapidly around major cities like Chicago and Milwaukee.
The national trajectory is worsening rapidly. Wisconsin has opened a field hospital. North Dakota, which not long ago had relatively few cases, has grown so overwhelmed that it has now ended most contact tracing. Cases have reached record levels recently in more than 20 states, including Illinois, Tennessee, New Mexico, Nebraska and Utah.
Deaths, though still well below their peak spring levels, averaged around 775 per day by late October, far more than were reported in early July.
But Ingraham and Trump Jr. jointly whined about a Minnesota effort to cap Trump rallies at 250. According to The Times, Minnesota has seen a 38% increases in coronavirus cases in the past two weeks and a 34% increase in deaths. But these two spun the government effort to prevent a superspreader as part of a liberal conspiracy to oppress Trump fans.
INGRAHAM: Don, I think this is part of a larger media effort as well, to brand the rallies, tell people not to go to the rallies.
She laughed scornfully after playing a clip of CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta warning people not to go to Trump rallies. “Is he kidding me?” she sneered.
TRUMP Jr.: These people are truly morons, you know what I mean? I like how they go after Scott Atlas [Trump’s unqualified, quack COVID adviser] because he’s not an epidemiologist but Sanjay Gupta now magically is. [Gupta is a medical journalist] I mean, give me a break, Laura.
The reality is this. If you look – I put it up on my Instagram a couple of days ago ‘cause I went through the CDC data. ‘Cause I kept hearing about new infections. But I was like, well why aren't they talking about deaths? Oh, oh, because the number is almost nothing! Because we’ve gotten control of this thing. We understand how it works, they have therapeutics to be able to deal with this. If you look at that, look at my Instagram. It’s gone to almost nothing.
Ingraham not only let the disinformation go unchallenged, she amplified it.
INGRAHAM: Of course, there are COVID deaths but the question is, are they really rising with the rising case numbers and I think we know from all the charts, you can go on all the websites, you can see – you know, maybe a slight uptick but not tracking with the rising case numbers which, frankly, is good news. But a tragedy is not a reason to take people away from their candidate.
Then Ingraham allowed Trump to spread another lie:
TRUMP JR.: The rising case numbers is because they’re testing more. So, I mean, they don’t talk about that either.
INGRAHAM: Now, Don, a lot of fear mongering going on.
FACT CHECK: Testing rates are down in several states where coronavirus cases are rising.
Ingraham let that lie go unchecked, too.
You can watch Junior and Ingraham promote a pro-death agenda for the sake of Daddy Trump’s political life below, from the October 29, 2020 The Ingraham Angle.