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Politicians are known for exploiting tragedy, and no party has perfected this art more than Democrats. From shootings (name one and there’s always a Democrat there seeking to exploit it) to plane crashes (Paul Wellstone) and memorials (Elijah Cummings), Democrats are the ambulance chasing lawyers of the political world. If something bad happens, there will be a Democrat there trying to use it to their advantage.

With the outbreak of COVID-19, AKA “coronavirus,” Democrats have crossed the line from opportunists to provocateurs - actively trying to manufacture panic to aid their 2020 prospects.

There is no doubt coronavirus is a serious matter. It’s currently ravaging areas of China, Italy, Iran, and more. But we have something those countries don’t: the greatest health care system and professionals in the world.

When you think of Iran you don’t think of world class medical care, but you might when you think of China or Italy. You’d be wrong. In Italy, some areas like Rome do have excellent hospitals, but the country as a whole is not on the leading edge of care. China is touted for the size of its economy but, as is the case in all communist regimes, the extent to which they have the best medical care available, it is reserved for those in power. Beijing could probably handle an outbreak much better than Wuhan because that’s where the people who matter live. Outside the seat of power, individuals are disposable in progressive countries like communist China.

But the United States has excellent care everywhere. While there is no “cure” for a virus, we have the ability to treat the symptoms more readily available than any other country in the world. And we also care to administer that care. Most of the rest of the world: not so much.

That’s why we have yet to have any deaths from coronavirus and the spread has been largely contained here.

Dying from coronavirus is rare, the mortality rate is roughly 1-2 percent. Otherwise healthy people get sick with flu-like symptoms, then recover. The threat is to the elderly, particularly those with respiratory issues or other health problems.

You wouldn’t know any of this if you just listened to Democrats and their public relations arm in the media. To hear them tell it, we’re on the verge of a pandemic that will make the Walking Dead look like a Sunday picnic.

Why lie? First of all, fear equals ratings and clicks. The more hyperbolic the claim in a story, the more people will tune in or share on social media. Never underestimate the power of the profit motive, especially from people to decry it.

Second, and most importantly, they want to damage President Donald Trump’s reelection prospects. Nothing they’ve tried has worked so far. The Russian collusion hoax fell flat, impeachment fizzled, as has all the other false starts they’ve manufactured. But an abstract - the prospect of mass death at some nebulous point in the future - might just do the trick.

For this gambit to work, they have to find a way to blame the president for a problem that doesn’t really exist, but might. All that has to be sacrificed is the truth.

With this in mind, the dangers of coronavirus have been exaggerated and no context of the difference between our medical care and the areas where it is ravaging have been blurred. Stories about surgical mask shortages are common, but rarely, if ever, mention that wearing one won’t protect the healthy from any type infection, that they’re only effective when worn by sick people. They are good at stopping sick people from getting others sick because they breathe, cough, and sneeze right into them. They aren’t effective in preventing the well from ingesting the virus because they don’t create a seal around every orifice through which the virus can enter.

This is useful information to disseminate, if your objective is to disseminate useful information. The left does not have that objective.

Instead, we get politicians hyperventilating, claiming the president hasn’t requested enough money to fight the disease. Not said is what the “extra” money Democrats insist is necessary is actually necessary for. Are there experts and labs out there that could find a treatment but they’re sitting idle because they don’t have any money? Are there more masks and antiseptics cluttering warehouses because the government doesn’t have the money to buy them? No.

They just complain that more money is needed because they want to make the president look as though he’s not taking this seriously, like they are. Only they aren’t.

Congress controls the money, if they think there’s a need for more money, all they have to do is authorize it. Rather than acting, they held press conferences. That should be a tell.

Other tells are pieces like, “Coronavirus makes the case for Medicare-for-all,” in the Washington Post, which manages to argue that massive government controlled health care is necessary here because a virus was unable to be contained by a massive government controlled health care system in China.

The Post also ran a story on how “critics,” which is always code for their liberal friends, don’t believe Vice President Mike Pence is qualified to run point on the administration’s efforts because in 2011, as a member of Congress, he voted to defund Planned Parenthood.

Additionally, leftists complain that Pence isn’t a doctor or medical expert. Curiously, none of these people had anything to say when, in 2014, President Obama appointed Ron Klain to be his “Ebola Czar.” Klain is a long-time Democratic Party operative, a lawyer and not a doctor, and Ebola is one of the deadliest viruses, if not the deadliest, on the planet. Coronavirus has a mortality rate comparable to the flu, Ebola has a mortality rate of roughly 50 percent. Yes, it’s more difficult to become infected with Ebola, but there was no concern over a political hack being put in charge of the nation’s response to that possible pandemic.

Of course, no propaganda effort would be complete without a useful idiot working to defend the propaganda effort itself. That’s where human potato Brian Stelter comes in. CNN’s spud nails the idiot part, if not the useful end. His effort, “Trump's war on truth takes a dangerous turn as he attacks the media's coronavirus coverage,” is about how the media is so important in times like this, and the President’s criticisms harm their truth-telling efforts. No, it’s not a parody.

To make his case, Mr. Potato Head cites “experts” like “Michiko Kakutani, the famous literary critic and author.” Because no one knows more about public health than a literary critic. Kakutani’s quote, “Trump's disdain for science and his cuts to science and public health programs have subverted preparedness for emergencies like the coronavirus,” is hilariously false. Stelter ran with it anyway because it fit the liberal narrative (I did mention the idiot part, right?) even though the Associated Press fact checked these “cut” claims and found them to be completely false.

Pro-tip, Brian, when trying to claim the mantle of truth-teller, don’t lie in the piece.

Ever vigilant in their pursuit of the liberal agenda, CNN tapped noted infectious disease expert…Chelsea Clinton to attack the president. Her effort, “Under Trump, America is less prepared for a coronavirus outbreak,” also cites these mythical budget cuts, but she at least acknowledges they didn’t happen. Still, they’re part of what she claims makes the country less safe. Writing the President “has repeatedly proposed cuts important to global health funding -- thankfully that have failed to pass in Congress.” Somehow something that did not happen is responsible for something that hasn’t happened.

Chelsea’s lack of qualifications as an expert on the subject doesn't matter, she’s saying the right things so they let her say them. She’s billed by CNN as teaching “at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia.” Having been a health policy analyst in another life, I can assure you that there is a world of difference between studying how government mandates impact insurance prices and anything remotely related to actual medical care. But she’s willing to say what they want said, so a “news” website happily runs it.

Now Democrat “journalists” are lying yet again, claiming the president called the virus a “hoax.” He didn’t; he called the left’s spin of it into an attack on him their latest hoax. Dana Milbank of the Post and Ken Dilanian of NBC have both helped spread this lie. Were lying about Trump not a virtue on the left, these untalented oafs would be otherwise unemployable, their only talent being a wiliness to lie or a mind so feeble they don’t realize they’re doing it. They’re lucky breathing is a reflex, as remembering to do it with regularity would prove to be too great a task for people with shoe sizes greater than their IQ.

The only reason this isn’t more disgusting is because none of it is a surprise.

There is nothing, literally nothing, the left won’t do, try, or lie about in order to win in November. If they have to scare the hell out of the public, if they have to lie to do it, so be it. To do it they will use every useful idiot on their team, and they have many. Thankfully, while the coronavirus has spread stupidity on the left, the American public are as unlikely to fall for this latest attempt to scare them into voting for Democrats as they were with all the others.

Derek Hunter is the host of a free daily podcast (subscribe!), host of a daily radio show on WCBM in Maryland, and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses. Follow him on Twitter at @DerekAHunter.