A few weeks after President Trump called coronavirus the Democrats’ “new hoax,” he went on TV Friday to declare the pandemic a national emergency. Now will you stop believing lies about COVID-19?

Even as evidence mounted this week proving that the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 illness are real, dangerous and spreading rapidly in New Jersey, another sickness ran rampant. And it was still plaguing some of our smartest people up to the very moment the president said “national emergency . . . two very big words.”

This illness of stupidity makes people blind to scientific facts and medical advice, encourages belief in misinformation and results in a toxic infection of foolishness about a deadly serious crisis.

Someone in your life is probably suffering from this. It’s entirely preventable, and it’s all of our responsibility to combat the sickness of mind and spirit.

It’s time to stop coddling family members who refuse to take coronavirus seriously, and forget indulging in good-faith debates with people who don’t believe in science. Facts are a medicine and it may be necessary to force them down someone’s throat.

Coronavirus will not simply “wash through,” the way Trump suggested (without evidence) that it would. Actual science says the most effective way to contain coronavirus will be to “flatten the curve,” or slow the virus spread using significant social isolation and quarantine.

Need visuals? This chart shows how Singapore managed to contain it by acting quickly and decisively, resulting in few cases, while countries like Italy and the U.S. haven’t. If you need something gentler, explain it using cats.

On Thursday, New Jersey had 29 confirmed coronavirus cases. By Friday afternoon, there were 50. Those are facts, not the delusions of misinformed talking heads like Jerry Falwell, Jr., who wants you to believe COVID-19 is a plot the Chinese and North Koreans cooked up. What will the number of local cases be by the time you read this?

Even as Trump spoke, some of you were still hitting ‘LIKE’ on those Facebook posts scolding “the media” for creating panic, claiming this outbreak has something to do with the upcoming election, and making dangerously false assertions about where coronavirus came from.

I’m not here to tell you to self-quarantine just to own the libs. I’m telling you to stay home so you don’t pass the coronavirus to Nonna over Sunday dinner, which you insisted on having because Vice President Pence says everybody should go on with their lives.

By Monday, it’ll be virtually impossible to go on about life as we did this time last week. It’s up to all of us to keep the virus of ignorance under strict quarantine.

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Amy Z. Quinn is NJ.com’s Audience Editor, Newsletters and Briefings and may be reached at aquinn@njadvancemedia.com.