OPINION:
Ezekiel “Zeke” Emanuel — who likes to go by Dr. Zeke Emanuel, so as to get the street cred front and center right away — is an adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, an architect of Obamacare and, of late, a modern-day prophet who predicts that social distancing, quarantining, lockdowns and stay-at-home orders will last for 18 months, or more, until such time as an effective vaccine can be found that will save every man, woman and child from the illness.
America, it’s time to get the fight on.
Either fight these ridiculous doomsday projections now, or forever hold the peace.
“Realistically, COVID-19 will be here for the next 18 months or more,” Emanuel said on MSNBC. “We will not be able to return to normalcy until we find a vaccine or effective medications.”
Eighteen months?
“I know that’s dreadful news to hear,” he said, Fox News reported. “How are people supposed to find work if this goes on in some form for a year and a half? Is all that economic pain worthy trying to stop COVID-19? The truth is we have no choice. … We cannot return to normal until there’s a vaccine. Conferences, concerts, sporting events, religious services, dinner in a restaurant, none of that will resume until we find a vaccine, a treatment or a cure.”
Vote Biden — he’ll destroy America. There’s a bumper sticker just waiting to be designed.
Emanuel’s wild assertions are just that, wild. They’re based on a false premise: We do indeed have a choice.
And they’re also proof-positive of the extent some will go to in order to use the coronavirus outbreak for political impact.
The coronavirus is not the Spanish flu, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated contributed to the deaths of 50 million around the world, and 675,000 in the United States, in the early 1900s. The one America survived.
The coronavirus is not the swine flu, which the CDC estimated led to the hospitalization of 274,000 or so, and contributed to roughly 12,500 deaths in America between 2009 and 2010. The one America survived.
The coronavirus is not even the coronavirus any more, given the downward forecasting of gloom and doom that’s come in recent days.
“A leading forecasting model used by the White House to chart the coronavirus pandemic predicted Monday that the United States may need fewer hospital beds, ventilators and other equipment than previously projected and that some states may reach their peak of covid-19 deaths sooner than expected,” The Washington Post reported.
That’s after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo just gave some better than originally projected good news about the possible tapering of COVID-19 deaths.
That’s after Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, announced “good signs” of a possible “turnaround” in coronavirus infections that he was seeing this week — though he also suggested a return to any U.S. normal would depend on the development of a vaccine.
But the point is this: Are Americans so fearful of getting sick that it’s worth staying behind closed doors, tanking the economy, shattering business-owner dreams, shutting schools, running around with protective face gear — for the next year and a half? Or longer? Based on error-prone projections?
Are Americans so fearful of dying of a virus that is proving fatal mostly to old people — a.k.a., newsflash, those who are about to die, anyway — that it’s justifiable to allow doctors and globalists to run the government, not duly elected? Not constitutionally sworn officials?
Wake the freak up, America.
Wake up and smell the crisis that’s being used and not wasted.
It’s time to punch back on the prognosticators by insisting pols, pundits, the press and members of the medical community provide information that’s truthful, in context, and — how about this — common sense. Pick up the pens; let the petitions flow.
It’s bonkers to stand idly by, face mask at the ready — eyes peeled for the mail to bring the measly government bailout check — and let America crash and burn.
To a virus.
Common sense tells how stupid this has all become.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE.
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