Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Fox’s Laura Ingraham touted all the good news you never knew existed about illness, death and dying in Texas from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Patrick (a Republican, of course) has repeatedly talked about his willingness to die for the sake of re-opening the economy, though he said nothing about whether he's been practicing what he preached. But on Thursday night, as the coronavirus pandemic came roaring back so strong that Texas' Gov. Greg Abbott “paused” the state's re-opening, Patrick visited Fox's The Ingraham Angle to suggest the only problems with the pandemic are the media and Democrats. He said nothing about helping to ease the pain and suffering of sick and dying Texans.
“Pro-life” Ingraham was on board with the messaging. She seemed more interested in using the Texas pandemic to slam New York’s Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo – where the pandemic has dramatically decreased – than in looking for solutions for Texas. In fact, she seemed determined to downplay the dangers to Texans in her zeal to make the red state look better than the blue.
Ingraham played a clip of Cuomo chiding the White House and red state governors for having played down the danger of the virus and painting it as Democratic hyperbole. “Denial is not a life strategy,” Cuomo said.
Ingraham has both played down the virus and demanded a re-opening – even as she works from the safety of a remote studio.
But instead of offering any remorse, any reconsideration, she doubled down – by celebrating that Texas has “only eight COVID deaths per 100,000 people, ranking 43rd out of 30 states.” She said maliciously, “In Washington D.C., and New York … they have 20 times more than Texas and ranking first in the country.
As if Texas had won some kind of contest for Republicans to celebrate.
Just a few weeks ago, Patrick was talking up the need for more God and Christian love in America. But at this moment, Patrick’s priority was politics over human life. His first comments were to slam Cuomo. Then he got to the “good news” about the spreading contagion in Texas:
PATRICK: First of all, Governor Cuomo is probably the biggest fraud who holds that position in the country. He had about 6,000 people die in nursing homes, we’ve had less than a thousand and that’s on top of the other people who have died in New York. He shortchanged the people in New York and he cost people their lives and how dare him come on and point his finger at any other governor in the state [sic].
“We have seen a spike in cases,” Patrick conceded. “We expected that because we are now testing almost 35,000 a day. FACT CHECK: Increased testing is known not to be the cause of the rise in cases. But Ingraham did not challenge the falsehood.
PATRICK: But here’s the good news. The good news is we’re not seeing it translate to the ICU unit or into fatalities. So, over the last eight days, we’ve had 47, 29, 28, 10, 17 people pass.
Every life is valuable but with a spike in cases and the spike in hospitalizations, the firewall so far is at the ICU units. I talked to one major hospital chain, Laura, last night. In March their death rate compared to positivity was almost 12%. In May it was 9% and this month, it’s 5.9.
Here’s the point. The numbers are high, but there’s a lot to be very optimistic about.
We are very concerned and being very careful, but to be very optimistic about because these are mostly younger people who were in the hospital for half the time that they were in March. They’re getting out, and they’re healthy, they’re not going to the ICU unit.
He went on to claim that, despite media reports, Texas is not running out of ICU beds. He said nothing about Houston. Nor did he mention that Texas cities are preparing to use convention centers and stadiums as pop-up hospitals as the demand grows.
Ingraham, along with Patrick, seemed completely untroubled about the pandemic surge in Texas. She crowed, “And you haven’t even had to move essential surgeries off the table. …You have room to grow in your ICUs I hope you don’t have to use it."
Patrick said that Abbott “was very clear” that he was pausing elective surgeries and the re-opening but that the state is “not stepping backwards.”
“We’re already 75% open,” Patrick said proudly. “People are out there and about, it’s one of the reasons that cases are up with young people.” He added, “We wish they would social distance as they do that but that’s been the big reason for the spike.”
Wait… what? He previously said increased testing was the cause.
Ingraham made no comment. Instead, after Patrick insisted the rise in ICU cases was due to non-Covid patients, she said gleefully that he had “clarified so much” that has been “purposely confused by the media.”
Good to know that while more Americans get sick and die, “pro-life” Ingraham is focused on exploiting the pandemic for partisan, political purposes.
You can watch these two give not even one fig about sick and dying Americans below, from the June 25, 2020 The Ingraham Angle.
Hope all is well with you and yours.