TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS: It looks like Bernie Sanders May well be the Democratic nominee. Wat will that mean for the country? The first part of our special series, Bernie Sanders’ America, is just a minute.



But first tonight, the coronavirus epidemic continues to cause chaos around world, not least in financial markets. The Dow Jones average dropped by 1,193 points today. That’s the biggest single-day drop in history. This week has been the market’s worst since the financial crisis. Friday could add to the damage.



Meanwhile, other nations are watching an exponential increase in infections. South Korea reported 505 new cases of Coronavirus in a single day. Japan has closed all schools nationwide for the month of March. Iran’s vice president has the virus. Saudi Arabia has shut down pilgrimages to Mecca. Here in the U.S. we have our first coronavirus case of unknown origin, not linked to travel. We will have many more. Currently, California is monitoring 8,400 people for signs of the virus.



The world is panicking. And there’s reason for that. In China, the virus has already killed more than 2,500 people. But that’s only if you trust China’s numbers, which no sober person does. The real number is likely much higher. But that’s just the beginning of what we don’t know. We’re not really sure how Coronavirus spreads. We don’t know know what the mortality rate is over large populations, especially as health services become overstretched. We’re still not even sure where it came from.



But here’s what we do know: A lot of the people who should have been preparing to defend from this, haven’t been. The CDC, America’s main line of defense against infectious diseases, seemed to be caught off guard. The center bungled the testing rollout for Coronavirus, meaning that, still, only a few hundred people in the U.S. have been screened for it. What was the CDC doing instead? Lots of things. Two years ago, CDC gave Georgia State University three quarters of a million dollars to study “social determinants of health” in a diverse neighborhood in Georgia. What did they learn from that? Nothing that helps us fight a rising pandemic. Another $300,000 CDC grant funded an a look at how an Indian tribe in Washington State could improve health outcomes by eating traditional foods. The CDC’s website includes an exhaustive section lecturing parents on how to properly administer time-outs. One suggestion: Putting toys in time out, instead of children.



Nobody’s really in favor of this garbage, least of all the many good people at CDC. You’ve got to think the overwhelming majority of doctors and researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are there because they passionately want to control and prevent diseases. It’s our policy-makers who can’t resist making everything ideological. Their main goal isn’t keeping you safe. If it was, they wouldn’t be letting rapists out of prison and pushing weed on your kids. No, their real interest is getting richer and feeling good about themselves. Protecting America doesn’t make them feel good. It makes them feel guilty. When the president imposed even mild travel restrictions on China last month, they attacked him as a bigot. As he pointed out last night:



TRUMP: Had I not made a decision very early on not to take people from a certain area, we wouldn't be talking this way. We would be talking about many more people would have been infected. I took a lot of heat. I mean, some people called me racist because I made a decision so early. And we had never done that as a country before, let alone early. So it was a, you know, bold decision. It turned out to be a good decision.



CNN, meanwhile, attacked the administration’s Coronavirus task force as, quote, “another example of Trump administration's lack of diversity.” As if the color of the doctors matters. A month later, CNN warned that the real threat of Coronavirus was racism against Asians. During last night’s presidential press conference, Wajahat Ali of the New York Times complained that the presentation was quote, “only one woman on stage surrounded by nearly 9 white men.” Again, the counting by race. If there was ever a time to drop that absurd and dangerous tic, it’s as a global pandemic bears down on our country. But they can’t stop, and they won’t. In the end, they care more about identity politics than they care your life. Presidential biographer Jon Meacham summed it up about as crispy as a man could, when he explained that his quote, “greatest anxiety” about Coronavirus is that it might damage the global diversity agenda:



MEACHAM: Seems to me that my greatest anxiety, aside from the impact of the virus itself, is we’re living in an age of xenophobia. And it is not impossible to imagine a scenario where blame is cast.



HAASS: That’s right.



MEACHAM: On some country or group of people, if this becomes worse.



More afraid that “blame might be cast” than that millions might die? That’s it right there, the attitude that has left us vulnerable to Coronavirus. Whatever weird guilt trip these people are on should be left to them and their psychiatrists to sort out. And it will take a while. But under no circumstances should they be anywhere near power. People will get hurt.



