Stoking flames of panic won’t help defeat coronavirus

No, President Trump did not carry the coronavirus with him when he returned from his whirlwind visit to India late February.

But you might think so, given the way panicked Democrats and their media allies sought to blame him for the spread of the virus in the United States.

You might have thought for a moment that Dr. Nancy Pelosi and Dr. Chuck Schumer knew what they were talking about when they attacked Trump for incompetence in handling the national health emergency.

But then you realized that the two were not health care specialists, but politicians, like Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, and were so used to attacking Trump that it did not matter what they were attacking him for — corruption, collusion, corona, whatever.

If Trump today reaffirmed his commitment to planting a trillion trees to help stave off climate change, the Democrats and their media stooges would accuse him of planting a trillion landmines.

No matter what the president does to combat the spread of the virus — and he has done a lot — there is no winning for him with the lefties of the press and politics.

The truth of the matter is that the reckless media — television and newspapers — has panicked and harmed more people across the county than has the spread of the coronavirus.

Listening to the mindless television talking heads one would think that we were at war and that people were dying in the streets

It is not only the media that is to blame, it is the politicians and even some doctors.

How does it do anyone any good when the president of the Massachusetts General Hospital, commenting on the lack of medical supplies, compares the situation to war?

“Our supplies are low,” Dr. Peter Slavin said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday. “We wouldn’t want to send solders into war without helmets and armor. We don’t want to do the same with our health care workers.” Well, whose fault is that? Gov. Charlie Baker appears to be on the same wave-length. He not only has declared a state of emergency, but like a good commander in chief he established a coronavirus command center headed by Marylou Sudders, his secretary of health and human services.

Well, if this is a war, it certainly is a strange one because relatively few people are being killed, at least around here.

While the number (as of this writing) of confirmed and presumptive coronavirus infection cases in Massachusetts stands at 164, the majority of them related to people who attended the Biogen conference at the now-shuttered Marriott Long Wharf Hotel last month.

This is not to in any way belittle the problem or the dangers of the situation. Coronavirus is a new and deadly virus, particularly dangerous to vulnerable older folks. It has spread around the world from its origins in Wuhan, the largest city in China’s Hubei province.

It has already taken some 71 lives in the U.S., shut the country down and disrupted the lives of millions of Americans.

It is good that the governor is holding almost daily press briefings to deal with the situation and provide the public with updates.

At the same time, though, it also behooves the governor to help put things in perspective.

It would be refreshing, and truthful as well, if he and the brainless people who breathlessly bring you the frightening television evening news, did something to ease the panic they have been spreading over the virus. And that is to tell the complete story.

They could begin by reporting that in Massachusetts, a state of almost 7 million people, no one to date has died from the coronavirus. No one.

It is important to report on the seriousness of the coronavirus spread, and what you can do to prevent it, and what the government can do to help.

But it is also important to stop the panic. This is not the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor, or the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

If I were the governor or a television news director, I would indeed daily report how many more people were infected. But first I would report that no one in Massachusetts (as of this writing) died from the coronavirus today, or yesterday, or the day before that.

That helps put things in perspective.