Woke Epidemiologists Are Going to Kill Us All

Remember five minutes ago when the protests of concerned citizens to re-open the states was considered evil, irresponsible, and deadly? 

Finger wagging journalists, concerned public health experts, and even police departments told us this in no uncertain terms.  You can’t gather to protest re-opening the states.  You can’t have funerals. You can’t even go to church.

But after the horrific killing of George Floyd, people changed their tunes.  Gathering in great numbers isn’t bad if you’re doing it to promote causes with which these woke experts agree.  In fact, it’s glorious.

Wait, what?  Over 110,000 people are dead. Now, these same experts are telling us that protesting in the streets by the tens of thousands is just fine?

The former head of the CDC, Tom Frieden, was the first to weigh in:

“The threat to Covid control from protesting outside is tiny compared to the threat to Covid control created when governments act in ways that lose community trust. People can protest peacefully AND work together to stop Covid. Violence harms public health.”

Then, Jennifer Nuzzo, an expert in epidemiology and global health security policy, added her thoughts:

“We should always evaluate the risks and benefits of efforts to control the virus. In this moment the public health risks of not protesting to demand an end to systemic racism greatly exceed the harms of the virus.”

Ooookay.  So, basically protesting is horrible unless they like what you’re saying?  Jonah Goldberg put it best:

Now, I don’t begrudge anybody for believing that the fight against racism or police brutality is important. But this “argument” rests on some preposterous assumptions.

Frieden, the former head of the CDC, is very concerned about public trust. Me too. But you know what erodes public trust in people like Frieden? When they say that you’re a fool or monster who will get people killed for wanting to go to church or keep your business open but you’re a hero when you join a protest they approve of.

Second, the whole idea that these protests will solve “systemic racism” or police misconduct is a form of magical thinking. Let’s assume that there is legislation that can solve these problems that stem from human nature for all time. How many more days of protest are necessary to get them? If they go on for another week, will Trump be more likely to sign the legislation? How about another month? Will that do the trick? How long do they have to go on for, how much germ spreading for justice, has to occur before what the epidemiologists were saying becomes true again?

Frieden and these other medical experts know a lot more than I do about diseases, but they know less than a taste tester at a lead paint factory about the nature of politics if they think this is a chance for a moonshot cure to the problems of race in America. 

Exactly. How on earth can the public trust these so-called experts when they talk out of both sides of their mouth?

Jonah concludes, “the excuse these epidemiologists are using to justify their about-face makes no sense practically. They are taking a sledgehammer to their own credibility by saying it’s okay to violate the rules they established, as long as you do it for causes they care about but not for causes you care about. You’re free to argue that their causes are more important or worthy than your causes—and you might be right—but that’s utterly irrelevant to the damage they’re doing.”

Exactly. When they continuously malign one segment of society, no one is going to take them seriously ever again.  And that’s potentially deadly.

 Hat Tip: The Dispatch

Image Credit: U.S. Air Force photo/Richard Eldridge