by Donald Jeffries, Lew Rockwell:

The great H.L. Mencken, a classical liberal when such creatures still existed, once wrote, “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.” I find myself repeating this quote more and more these days.

America, and the rest of the world, is in the throes of a panic that has never been seen before, outside the fanciful scripts of Hollywood. A new “super” virus, the Coronavirus, is being hyped nonstop by our state-controlled media as the new bubonic plague. The fear porn emanating from our television sets is relentless.

Attempting to urge calm, and discuss this subject rationally is very difficult. Hysterical shoppers have wiped the shelves clean in many stores. Toilet paper, for whatever reason, is being hoarded by nearly everyone. I have done what I can, with my own limited platform. I’ve had guests like the veteran medical fraud expert Jon Rappoport, and Dr. Steven Hotze, on my radio show “I Protest.” Most listeners, and most of my contacts on social media, seem to agree that this thing is being wildly over hyped. Some agree with my growing suspicion that it is, in fact, a hoax.

Even establishment voices like Dr. Drew Pinsky and Dr. Oz are attempting to restore reason. Pinsky noted, “A bad flu season is 80,000 dead, we’ve got about 18,000 dead from influenza this year, we have a hundred from corona. Which should you be worried about influenza or Corona? A hundred versus 18,000? It’s not a trick question…What I have a problem with is the panic and the fact that businesses are getting destroyed that people’s lives are being upended, not by the virus, but by the panic. The panic must stop. And the press, they really somehow need to be held accountable because they are hurting people.”

Both Jon Rappoport and Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg are asking the questions all of us should be asking. Exactly how was this particular strain of the Coronavirus- COVID-19, identified? Rappoport claims that “presumptive” cases of the virus are being lumped in together with actual cases. To say that any reported numbers are unreliable in such a scenario is to put it mildly. But it may be worse than that. Someone on Twitter claims to have talked with the CDC, who admitted there is no present test for COVID-19. If that remarkable claim is true, then exactly how are any people being diagnosed as having it? Is every case “presumptive?”

Just in the last week, we’ve seen both the NBA and NHL suspend their seasons. The NCAA has cancelled March Madness, one of the most lucrative sporting events in the world. Businesses are closing. Virtually all events with large crowds have been cancelled. The CDC has recommended the banning of all gatherings with fifty or more people for eight weeks. So, if any revolutionaries out there were plotting to come together and don yellow jackets, it will have to be in groups of forty nine.

Washington, D.C. bars and restaurants have decreed that patrons may not come within less than six feet of one another. This brilliant idea was gleaned from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who advised, “In general, when going outside try to stay at least 6 feet away from others as … If you can’t stay 6ft away from other people, it’s too close.” How such a ridiculous edict would be enforced wasn’t delineated by the good representative. Portable tape measures? What would be the penalties for breaching the six foot perimeter?

In 2009, this country was hit hard with the Swine Flu. Barack Obama, universally praised for his response, did nothing until 4,000 Americans had already died, when he declared a National Emergency. The CDC claimed that 59 million Americans contracted the disease, 265,000 were hospitalized, and over 12,000 died. As of now, headlines trumpet that “US death toll rises to 62.” The numbers don’t justify the reaction we’ve seen on the part of our leaders. Or the people. They don’t even seem to qualify this “super” virus as a pandemic.

In fact, the wonder is that they keep trotting out these numbers, which pale in comparison to deaths from the regular flu every year, and continue to receive the same panicked response on the part of the public. At what point do Americans start to question this? Why is the country being basically shut down over something that doesn’t appear nearly as dangerous as the normal, non “super” flu? If they are ordered to remain in their houses, how many Americans would protest?

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