Fox News’ next ploy for dangerously distorting the coronavirus pandemic may have been previewed by phony medical experts "Diamond and Silk" claiming that the increase in reported coronavirus deaths is a plot to undermine Donald Trump.
Just like the lying ignoramuses didn’t let a lack of credentials stop them from playing immigration and national security experts on Fox, now the two are playing public health experts in their online chat. Their own website fails to list a single credential on just about any subject other than their devotion to Trump.
Media Matters caught them spouting off on behalf of their idol’s desire to “open up” the country by Easter, on March 29. Presumably that was before Trump walked away from that and extended social distancing to April 30 that same day.
DIAMOND: I knew this was going to happen. I knew after he said this, this was going to happen. Go ahead.
SILK: At the time he said it there was 25,489 cases with 307 deaths. Instantaneously, you had the media calling President Trump out, he wanted open by Easter, he want this open by Easter - me and you was talking, I said now watch the numbers of deaths go up --
DIAMOND: Right.
SILK: Watch everything increase because they wanted to make it look bad in front of our eyes.
Funny, Dr. Anthony Fauci, of Trump’s own coronavirus task force and head of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, doesn’t think there’s anything odd about the numbers. From a March 29 NPR report:
The exponential growth in cases and deaths falls in line with some predictive models that suggest that in the coming weeks, the U.S. could begin to see death tolls in the thousands every day.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a key expert on the White House coronavirus task force, told CNN Sunday morning that he estimates the U.S. could ultimately see 100,000 to 200,000 deathsfrom the virus and millions of cases overall.
Diamond and Silk's comments were not made on Fox News, as far as I know. But Media Matters caught radio host Mark Levin, also a Fox News host, saying something similar on his March 30 radio show: He called the number of deaths “inflated” and “extraordinarily misleading” and said, "I cannot find anywhere the definition of what it means to die from this virus." His video is below, underneath “Drs.” Diamond and Silk.
Rush Limbaugh seems to have gotten in on the action, too:
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient https://t.co/84WGPseso0
— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) March 31, 2020
As Media Matters’ Matt Gertz tweeted earlier today, Get ready for more of this “incredibly ghoulish” messaging to come.
(Diamond and Silk image via screen grab)
Mark Levin says coronavirus numbers are misleading, claiming "I cannot find anywhere the definition of what it means to die from this virus" pic.twitter.com/hYFlL2m1NU
— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) March 31, 2020
I have a friend who checks all the boxes for COVID-19. She can’t get a test from her doctor who works in a clinic of the region’s largest research hospital. They’ve never seen a test. She’s desperate for a test and has spent 2 weeks trying to find a provider who conducts the test. For nearly all of last week my suburban county of ~340,000 (2016) reported 13 cases day after day. Then it jumped overnight to 43 where it’s stuck now. Seriously? Even the twits Diamond and Silk can’t believe that (well, maybe I exaggerate they’re the dumbest humans on planet Earth).
I used to work around epidemiologists. I see interviews of epidemiologists. We need extensive test sampling to understand not just the extent of coronavirus in America but to understand its demographics, spread patterns, etc. The Trump administration has no clue and is literally making people by the thousands sick!
I get Fox News thinks thousands of Americans dying to keep Dear Leader is a small price to pay to pack the Supreme Court to ban abortion and force millions of women to have unwanted children. But if they think it’s just a bunch of big city libs dying they’ve got to realize it’s their MAGA supporters, the elderly, who are most vulnerable and if this spreads to rural areas with their pitiful health services they’re f—cked big-time.
What’s sad is MAGAts buy all of Fox’s bs. As I mentioned before, I know a couple of senior rural MAGAts who not only are totally blowing off social distancing, they’re driving all over America visiting people who are mostly seniors too, and they’re openly bragging about thumbing their nose at the ‘flu’.
Well, Mark: it’s a lot like drowning, only spread out over several days during which the patient has to be heavily sedated because of the pain.
That information, you silly ignoramous (aka twit), is readily available for those who actually want to know.
There’s no denying that the health system up north was caught with its pants down but the situation in the rest of the country has been fairly calm. I put that down to pretty good messaging.
A great deal of credit needs to be given to the media (Sky24 included) for airing an endless stream of interviews of real experts. Attempts by certain populist politicians to spread different stories fell flat, being recognised for what it was: political skulduggery.
Italy is not entirely free of willful ignorance but there exists a streak of realism and pragmatism among the silent majority (many of whom have had little formal education) and these are the people who are responding responsibly to the invitation to practice social distancing. They’re also reminding the idiots that they should be listening to the specialists, not their gut.
