Don’t underestimate it, either

WHILE THIS sort of environment is perfect for fostering conspiracy theories and sensationalist claims, it’s important to give the coronavirus the appropriate response and consideration, something our president doesn’t seem to be doing.

President Trump may have worked wonders for the economy. But like every president before him, the man has flaws.

One of those flaws is making claims without facts to back them up. He has continually disagreed with medical professionals.

Just last week President Trump was on Sean Hannity’s infotainment program to disparage statistics from the World Health Organization. Medical professionals, who have absolutely no interest in politicizing deadly viruses, said the global mortality rate for coronavirus stands at 3.4 percent. But our president, without presenting any scientific sources, disagreed.

“Well, I think the 3.4 percent is really a false number. Now, and this is just my hunch, and—but based on a lot of conversations with a lot of people that do this. Because a lot of people will have this and it’s very mild. They’ll get better very rapidly. They don’t even see a doctor. They don’t even call a doctor,” the president said.

Hunches are for board games and cable detective series. When we’re dealing with the health of millions of Americans, hunches don’t cut it.

The New York Times reported Thursday 11 people had died so far in America from the virus. That’s not fake news.

“But again, they don’t know about the easy cases because the easy cases don’t go to the hospital,” the president said. “They don’t report to doctors or the hospital, in many cases. So I think that that number is very high. I think the number, personally, I would say the number is way under 1 percent.”

For the record, the president has no medical training. He produced his own data based on a hunch. And he said hundreds of thousands of people with the virus are fine, and they’re still going to work. Which is probably something a president of the United States shouldn’t encourage.

The rest of us should listen to doctors and experts. And neither over-react nor under-react. Wash your hands thoroughly with hot soapy water, stay home if you’re sick, and if you’ve got symptoms, get to a medical professional.

This is serious. That is, according to experts.