March 30, 2020, 22:42 HRS. – Original publish date.
March 31, 2020, 03:14 HRS. – Update.
Editorial written by Net Advisor™
WASHINGTON, DC. Historically speaking, so far Covid-19 is one of the weakest and smallest viruses in history to cause a mass hysteria. We examined current U.S. cases for Coronavirus compared to the Flu Virus. We also looked at how media and politics have turned Covid-19 into political fear weapon.
Pandemic or Panic-Mania?
In the USA, there are 164,603 confirmed cases for Covid-19; 3,164 deaths, and where about 1,192 deaths or 38% of USA deaths thus far are all in New York (chart above).
Now Compare Covid-19 to the Flu Virus.
The graphic below provided by the CDC shows the current Flu season in the USA has infected 38 million to 54 million people; whereas 400,000 to 730,000 Americans have been subject to hospitalizations; and whereas 24,000 to 62,000 deaths occurred from the Flu virus – all just in the USA.
Fun Flu Facts:
From Feb. 29, 2020 to March 21, 2020:
Number of Increased Flu Virus Infected People in USA: +4 to 5 Million.
Number of Increased Flu Virus Hospitalizations in USA: +50,000 to 110,000.
Number of Increased Flu Virus Deaths in USA: +4,000 to 10,000.
This Flu virus has no guaranteed cure and happens about the same time, every year.
Does everyone panic? No.
Do stores close? No.
Do people rush to stock up on sanitizer and toilet paper? No.
Why?
No 24-7 media or political coverage.
So if Covid-19 isn’t as scary for most people as it has led us to believe, why the fear?
Enter Politics.
Some mentally sick people have been rooting for the U.S. economy to crash in order to try and remove the current U.S. administration from office by the upcoming election.
Democrats and politically-driven media have spent over three years in a hate, tar and feather mode trying to find something or do something to get the rest of the country to share their anger and hate for the Trump administration.
Some extremists have even called for the overthrow of the U.S. (Trump) government and have made public threats against the President. This extreme obsessive behavior even has it’s own name as a mental “disease.”
Democrats fearing lackluster 2020 candidates, their only effort has been a desperate three-plus year effort in search of a crime to rid Trump – aka a witch-hunt.
There have been some thirty Democrat investigations which all thus far have turned up nothing. Even impeachment only made the President more popular with voters. Despite Democrat’s anger, the country had never been better off.
After everything else failed to rid the President at this point, perhaps a new plan to fear the public of a China-based virus might work.
Politicians were very critical about President Trump’s travel ban from China to the USA in January 2020. The Democrat House Speaker called President Trump, “un-American,” to saying the travel ban was just “discrimination,” and that the travel ban was, “a threat to our security.” (archived tweet.)
The Trump Admin’s expansion of its un-American travel ban is a threat to our security, our values and the rule of law. Barring more than 350 million people from predominantly African countries from traveling to the US, this rule is discrimination disguised as policy.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) February 1, 2020
The House Speaker clearly was clueless as she has not since advocated anyone to travel to anywhere let alone China.
It was less than two weeks ago Democratic 2020 candidate, Joe Biden was still calling President Trump’s handling of Covid-19 as “xenophobic fearmongering.”
Biden clearly also has also been shortsighted about the reality that Covid-19 originated in Wuhan, China; and calling a virus from its originating source isn’t ‘racist,’ it’s just factual.
Despite Biden’s ills, a recent Gallup poll found that 60% of America Approve of Trump’s Coronavirus response.
Other political-driven media have jumped on the bandwagon referring to Covid-19 has a “Xenophobia Problem” also closely tied to ‘racism.’
Then we see other media who got called out for publishing false new stories such as “Trump ‘Disbanded‘ (the) Pandemic Office.”
Congress also passes a $2.2 Trillion bill last Friday. There was plenty of controversy and bickering. The aid bill included a lot more than financial support to American families, it included a lot of political pork [Report].
Doom & Gloom Fear Crowd – Temporary Win.
It looks like the “fear crowd” got the economy to at least temporarily crash, instill public panic, and certain states jumped in to help that effort.
In our view, the media panic forced the hand of the President to take certain actions or face new criticisms for not doing enough.
The politically-driven media and opponents would be critical no matter what.
As challenging and historic as U.S. actions have been on the economy, the result may have helped to slow the spread of the virus, giving more time to address what is necessary to do in order to find solutions to the problem.
States however, took their own actions, but not all states. Oddly enough, it appears that the vast majority of states that have ‘stay-at-home’ orders are states with Democrat leadership (Graphic below).
Economic Risks.
The longer these states keep businesses closed, and people not working, the more damaging it will be to their state’s economy. The result can create a spill-over effect, impacting other state economies.
On the extreme side, states ultimately risk economic collapse. Then again, some may want that. That way, they can implement new and unchecked totalitarian (unconstitutional) orders which they have already done to force some crazy will onto the public.
Good Luck with that.
Unfortunately Marxists, no local, state or fed gov can issue any order that violates Constitutional law which is Supreme to all other laws (Article VI, Paragraph 2).
in re: District of Columbia v Heller, 554 US 570 (2008)https://t.co/CGCGFmlTdz#COVIDー19
— NetAdvisor.org® (@NetAdvisor) March 15, 2020
This government lawlessness won’t work long, but some are crazy enough to push it.
Why New York?
As discussed thus far, New York currently has the largest percent of Covid-19 cases and deaths in the USA. Why did New York get hit so hard?
With encouragement from the local New York City government, crowds were not concerned about the spread of Covid-19.
“This week marks the peak of the biggest human migration in the world, as hundreds of millions of Chinese travel for Lunar New Year festivities.
To reunite with family, they’ll spend long hours on cramped buses, overnight trains and airtight planes, sharing recirculated air — and germs — with hundreds of fellow travelers.”
President Trump implemented new travel bans starting with China beginning in late January, and during Democrat’s impeachment trial which didn’t end until February 5, 2020.
New York politicians ignored the Trump advised travel ban; ignored the fact that people travel every minute of the day, that hundreds-of-millions were traveling from China at this time of year anyway; and ignored the fact that much of the flu and other viruses get spread by close contact of persons (sneezing, coughing, talking).
Today our city is celebrating the #LunarNewYear parade in Chinatown, a beautiful cultural tradition with a rich history in our city. I want to remind everyone to enjoy the parade and not change any plans due to misinformation spreading about #coronavirus. https://t.co/bwCnIb7j8H
— Commissioner Oxiris Barbot (@NYCHealthCommr) February 9, 2020
Now New York City is in virtual quarantine and business shutdown; where 38% off all Covid-19 cases are in New York. Clearly New York leaders failed to heed a cautionary travel ban, and what has now been proven to be sound advice.
The ‘good news’ is 95% of those infected thus far had existing serious health issues, so those who have normal or are in decent heath, are less-at-risk.
This arrogance is also problem in San Francisco, California. The city ignored the Covid-19 problem. People from China were traveling all over the world to celebrate Lunar New Year.
“The Mayor of Wuhan, China said that some 5 million people had fled the city before travel restriction were in effect.
5 million people had left the city before travel restrictions were imposed ahead of the Chinese New Year. He said he expected at least 1,000 of some 3,000 suspected cases to be diagnosed with the highly-contagious virus.”
California currently has the third highest number of Covid-19 cases in the USA.
Stocks Take a Toll Over Shutdown Panic.
The U.S. stock market (DJIA) fell about 38% in just about three weeks. What pundits and media did not anticipate someone in office who didn’t listen to them; and moved to figure out how to come up with action plan and solutions while subject to a politically-driven impeachment trial.
To date of this article, The DJIA has rebounded about 20%.
Financial markets seek to anticipate future and unexpected data. Expect volatility. We suggested some ideas on how to manage market volatility.
As for the extremists who have chosen to push for the fall of America may be seen as untrustworthy in future elections. In the media, if one is deemed untrustworthy, they’ll see their ratings collapse.
The good news is that we have found not everyone in media are painted with the same brush. We have credited many articles and reports who have independently just reported the story. Unfortunately there are those who can’t (or choose not) to leave their bubble of bias and hatred; and just take a moment and be part of a constructive solution, instead of the problem.
NetAdvisor™ is a former nine-time state, FINRA licensed, 401(k) and retirement planning specialist, experienced in hedge fund management, and a financial and risk management consultant. Read more bio.
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