Panic 2.0

It is better to die on your feet, than live on your knees. – Emiliano Zapata (Mexican revolutionary, circa 1900)

Since states have begun to re-open, the rate of COVID-19 cases has increased. This is a fact. The news media, some health officials and many politicians all speak about this increase as failure of containment, reckless decision making, and a premature attempt to return to normal. Once again, the apocalypse is upon us, and the only way to avoid it is to go back to the unnaturally restrictive lives we all lived in the months of March and April.

The original stated goal of the lockdowns was to slow the spread of the virus until hospitals and clinics could gear up. Once the hospitals were properly equipped, we were told, they could then presumably handle the anticipated stream of COVID-19 patients coming their way when the lockdowns were released. All of that made sense and was proceeding roughly according to plan until just recently. When the number of COVID-19 cases began to rise after the lockdowns were eased (as was expected), the media and many health officials reversed course and renewed the public panic. Governors restarted some of the lockdown restrictions. That wasn’t the plan. The plan was to return the majority of the healthy, relatively young population to work and school, pull the country back from the brink of economic depression, and use the now appropriately equipped hospitals to handle the inevitable increase in COVID-19 infections. In effect, we would live with, not hide terrified from, COVID-19 in the same way we live with influenza each year. This was not a callous or reckless course of action. For the population as a whole, the adverse medical effects of the lockdowns are producing health outcomes which physicians liken to a “mass casualty incident”.¹ These devastating health effects are only worsened by the accompanying economic catastrophe. Plus, we have gathered enough statistical evidence to know that COVID-19 is not nearly as deadly to the overall population as was first thought. We now know more precisely which portion of the population is most vulnerable (seniors and those with certain existing health problems) and that the vast majority of cases are either mild or entirely asymptomatic. The decision to re-open and live with the virus was both thoughtful and logical.

So why have many states abruptly reversed course with this plan? We think there are three main reasons:

1. When state lockdowns were first instituted, it was the first time many state governors were required to exercise large scale and very visible command and control. Some of these governors, whose names were previously unknown to most of us, suddenly became nationally famous for their “bold” actions and were in the headlines almost every day. It was an elevation of name recognition and stature these public servants would otherwise never have experienced if not for the virus. As the lockdowns began to be eased and life started returning to near-normal, COVID-19 started appearing less prominently in the headlines. George Floyd’s death and the protests that followed further pushed COVID-19 to the back burner along with the fleeting fame of these state governors. The thrill of having one’s leadership and stature on public display in the face of an external threat was fading along with the viral panic. With only four short months before a national election, this is a time when visibly displaying leadership to voters is needed the most. We believe this created either a witting or subconscious motive to hang on to the COVID-19 panic. Doing so creates the circumstance for governors and other elected state officials to remain newsworthy and evince their able authority, whether it is truly necessary or not. There are also a few who appear to be merely enjoying their newly exercised power for its own sake and are reluctant to release the reins.
2. At the national level, COVID-19 had managed to accomplish what the Democrats, major media, deep state turncoats, and legions of pundits had failed to do in four years – find a chink in the armor of the Trump support base. It wasn’t that Trump had done anything wrong in combating the virus – quite to the contrary, he insisted on and led a stunningly fast transformation of American industry for the production of ventilators, masks, test kits and other virus mitigation needs. However, for a time, the panic and confusion that gripped the country was real. It was a genuine threat whose true strength was unknown. At that moment, no President could have known precisely the correct course of action to take. The Monday morning quarterbacking of those who now claim to know exactly what should have been done is pure fantasy and political theater. The natural confusion and fear brought on by the pandemic was tremendously amplified by the media, leaving many people feeling vulnerable. A general uncertainty about the immediate future was reflected in public opinion polls which for the first time appeared to spread into the normally rock-solid Trump voter base. It was not a move against Trump, just a hint of uneasiness. This observation was all that was needed for the anti-Trump crowd to move in to exploit a weakness. The problem they encountered, much like that of the state governors, was that as the lockdowns were eased the economy began roaring back (job growth soared for two straight months), COVID-19 was overtaken in the headlines, and Trump voters were regaining their confidence. An obvious solution was to recreate those same conditions of uncertainty. While there was no guarantee that any amount of fomented confusion and concern about the virus could actually defeat Trump, it was the best opportunity yet for the Trump opposition to lower the odds of his re-election.
3. In the midst of the initial COVID-19 panic, the Democrats had seemingly by default ended up with Joe Biden as their presidential candidate. Biden is well known to be a font of unforced errors whenever he speaks extemporaneously. On top of that, the vexatious escapades of his son Hunter and the checkered past of Biden’s decisions as Senator relative to today’s “woke” values were problematic to say the least. However, as counterintuitive as it sounds, Biden’s sequestration in the basement of his home in Delaware and out of public view, ostensibly because of the COVID-19 lockdown, improved his political standing. The less Biden was seen or heard the better his public image became. As the lockdowns eased, and there was no more excuse for Biden to stay hidden, he began appearing and speaking publicly again. To no one’s surprise, reality hit hard and Biden stumbled. He could not come close to the competent image that had been crafted for him during his COVID-19 seclusion. By appearing before the media (a very forgiving media at that) he was only hurting himself, and thus the Democrat’s chances in November. The solution again, is to re-create the environment that kept the real Biden under lock and key so that only a carefully managed image of him could be presented to the public. The perfect cover was to return to what worked before and create a “legitimate” reason, namely a ruinous COVID-19 resurgence, for Biden to go back into isolation.

Don’t think for a minute that the Democrats aren’t capable of callously inciting a public health panic purely for political reasons. They know they have the full backing of the major media. There is financial benefit for the news networks to have headlines and a story narrative that everyone will want to read and hear. What the Democrats are trying to do now is control the timing of the panic so it will gradually increase and then peak at the optimal time to affect the November election in their favor. In that regard, they have the complicit assistance of the Democrat governors who are more than willing to reimpose lockdowns and assert power. The success or failure of this ploy rests upon how well the more conservative states and their governors stand up to the expected “shaming” that will be directed at them by the media and anti-Trump health officials. They will be made to look dangerous and willing to prioritize capitalism over a life and death health crisis. Unfortunately, there is already evidence of conservative governors caving in to this pressure with bars being closed again and new mask wearing requirements being imposed in many states.

All the while, not a single thing has changed with regard to the expected behavior of the virus. Nor has anything occurred that would ameliorate the dire health and economic calamities that will inevitably accompany extending lockdowns. The same logical and practical reasons for choosing to reopen schools and businesses and live with the virus still remain. The one political leader who has remained true to that original course of action is President Trump. We are firm believers that reopening and living with the virus, with proper precautions in place for seniors and vulnerable others, was and remains the correct plan.

Conservative governors must display strength equal to the President and a robust resolve of their own. Upon election, they swore to serve their constituents, whose economic survival and very lives may now depend upon gubernatorial mettle. Conservative governors must not allow the Democrat/media coalition to shame or pressure them into surrendering to a false and manufactured panic.

¹ A letter to the President from Simon Gold, MD signed by over 500 physicians which describes the manner in which the national shutdown has created a “mass casualty incident” for the nation, ASIDE from those who came down with COVID-19. (Click here to read the letter)