Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop
In the New York Times, Ross Douthat says that until sometime in February, "liberal officialdom and its media appendages were more likely to play down the threat, out of fear of giving aid and comfort to sinophobia or populism. This period was the high-water mark of “it’s just the flu” reassurances in liberal outlets, of pious critiques of Donald Trump’s travel restrictions, of deceptive public-health propaganda about how masks don’t work, of lectures from the head of the World Health Organization about how 'the greatest enemy we face is not the virus itself; it’s the stigma that turns us against each other.'”
I don't remember this *at* *all." Is my head screwed on wrong? I have been a little more obsessive about this story than most people, but this is crazy. The news sources that liberals turn to -- NPR, the New York Times -- were reporting from Wuhan and the rest of China on a story that most people were not paying attention to. I don't remember anyone playing down the threat.
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I don't recall any "liberal" playing down the threat. I do recall pushback against racist half-measures, because they were racist half-measures, but that's different.
But he's right about the mask thing. I get why they wanted to say masks don't help, because we don't have enough masks and things would be worse still with a rush on them, but they shouldn't have said they don't help when they do.
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