Katherine Stewart, a journalist of indeterminate scientific credentials (her first book was something called “Yoga Mamas”), wrote a screed in the New York Times accusing Christians of “hostility to science” which is “crippling” our response to coronavirus.
It’s several hundred words of condescending tripe. But it wasn’t a conservative Christian who fed aquarium cleaner to her husband to cure coronavirus and wound up killing him, it was a zealous, crusading Democrat. It wasn’t a Christian politico who urged people to join her for a leisurely stroll in Chinatown in the middle of the pandemic, it was Nancy Pelosi. It wasn’t a conservative Christian mayor who urged his citizens to go out to restaurants and attend parades in New York in the middle of March, it was Democrat Bill DeBlasio. It wasn’t a Christian health commissioner who urged folks to party down at Mardi Gras (because there was nothing to fear from coronavirus), it was a Democrat in New Orleans.
On the other hand, it was the hated President Trump who was the first in the world to suspend immigration from China, something Italy did not do with disastrous results. Turns out now every country in the world is imitating President Trump’s leadership by securing their borders and limiting immigration.
Regressives want us to believe that they are the enlightened ones and that those of us who follow Christ are nothing but scientifically illiterate rubes and hayseeds. And yet time after time, Christians urge us to adopt public policy positions based squarely in science (e.g., genetic scientists declare that each of us is either male or female from the moment of conception) while regressive Democrats continue to peddle dangerous and unscientific poppycock (gender is fluid, and gender confusion can be treated with surgical mutilation). Regressives believe carbon dioxide is a pollutant which is destroying the planet. We believe the scientific truth, that CO2 is plant food without which nothing on earth will grow.
As news reports began circulating that the coronavirus was able to be transmitted from person to person, Democratic lawmakers continued encouraging Americans to gather in large groups.
The coronavirus, New York Mayor Bill De Blasio said February 14th, "should not stop you from going about your life, should not stop you from going to Chinatown and going out to eat. I’m going to do that today myself.”
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi likewise urged Americans to patronize restaurants, specifically in Chinatown. While touring Chinatown on February 28th with a throng around her not practicing social distancing, Pelosi said: "It’s exciting to be here, especially at this time, to be able to be unified with our community ... We want to be careful about how we deal with it, but we do want to say to people, come to Chinatown. Here we are. We’re, again, careful, safe and come join us.”
In New Orleans, as the city geared up for Mardi Gras despite pleas from health officials to cancel the week-long bacchanal, the city’s chief health official confidently assured those planning to attend: “There is no concern at this time for coronavirus in our region … the risk for us is very low.” New Orleans soon became the epicenter of the coronavirus spread.
New York City’s health commissioner, Oxiris Barbot, said riding public transit and going out into public - including attending the Chinese Lunar New Year parade in Chinatown - were entirely responsible behaviors, since we were dealing with something no worse than the ordinary flu.
“We are encouraging New Yorkers to go about their everyday lives and suggest practicing everyday precautions that we do through the flu season,” Barbot said on January 26th. She added that those “who had recently traveled from Wuhan were not being urged to self-quarantine or avoid large public gatherings.”
On February 2nd, she urged the same reassurance: “The risk to New Yorkers for Coronavirus is low, and our preparedness as a city is very high. There is no reason not to take the subway, not to take the bus, not to go out to your favorite restaurant, and certainly not to miss the parade next Sunday.”
"I’m going to be there," she added, as if she were the spider drawing the fly into the parlor.
The same day, New York State Senator John Liu likewise urged New Yorkers to avoid “social distancing.”
“There is no need to panic and to avoid activities that we always do as New Yorkers,” Liu said at a press conference. “We are hardy people. As an Asian-American, I’ve been disturbed if not outright appalled by some of the comments or gestures that I have seen. Diseases originate from anywhere or from particular places in the world.”
On February 7th, Barbot offered New Yorkers the same dangerous advice: “The important thing for New Yorkers to know is that in the city currently their risk is low and our city preparedness is high. And so we know that this virus can be transmitted from one individual to another, but that it’s typically people who live together. That there’s no risk at this point in time — we’re always learning more — about having it be transmitted in casual contact, right?”
“So we’re telling New Yorkers, go about your lives, take the subway, go out, enjoy life, but practice everyday precautions,” she said.
On March 2nd, De Blasio said during a coronavirus press conference that there was no reason to take any special precautions: “In fact, the facts are reassuring, all New Yorkers should really pay attention to this. We have a lot of information now. Information is actually showing us things that should give us more reason to stay calm and go about our lives.”
By March 10th, De Blasio was still urging New Yorkers to congregate in mass gatherings.
“For the vast majority of New Yorkers, life is going on pretty normally right now; we want to encourage that,” De Blasio told MSBNBC. “...This disease, even if you were to get it, basically acts like a common cold or flu. And transmission is not that easy. I think there has been a misperception that Coronavirus hangs in the air, waiting to catch you. No. It takes direct person-to-person contact, direct transmission of fluids.” Not long after, New York was racking up more infections than any other city on earth.
Who’s spent the last two months “crippling” the coronavirus response? Christians? I don’t have a trained eye, but from here it looks like our enlightened, sophisticated, elite betters in the Democratic Party.
The author may be contacted at bfischer@afa.net
