Former CNN Producer: Media Leak on June Coronavirus Death Toll was Irresponsible Fear-Mongering

MattVespa/Townhall:

The lockdowns are ending. Not all at once, but over half of the states are slowly beginning to reopen. That’s good news. And it’s in states that weren’t hard-hit. Oklahoma is not New York. They can start this process. So can Texas and 30 other states. Virginia is set to start reopening nonessential businesses on May 15. The stay-at-home orders allowed our health care systems to breathe. They haven’t been overwhelmed. And the antibody testing is showing that a lot of Americans already have had the virus and recovered from it. We still don’t have a vaccine, but Gilead Sciences has expanded production on an anti-viral that has seen excellent results, prompting the FDA to grant it emergency authorization use. We’re coming out of this, even in New York City the hospitalization rate and death count is dropping. The curve has been flattened. Now, we brace for a possible second wave of infection, but the wait is over. It’s time to start re-opening.

Yes, I was supportive of the lockdowns but was never part of the ‘lockdown until a vaccine’ cohort that emanates from the liberal media and their allied politicians, seeking to continue to wreck the economy in order to win the upcoming election. 

The economy contracted by nearly 5 percent in the first quarter of 2020 due to the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak. The epicenter remains New York City and the greater tri-state area. The West and East Coasts remain the geographic hotspots, all of them with Democratic leaders. So, prior to the easing of the lockdowns, there were stories about rural hotspots popping up. That’s fake news. We’ve entered a period of red-state shaming, with an odious and disgusting narrative that rural states easing their COVID restrictions will get people killed. Worse is the accompanying swipe that the media thinks these people in these states want others to die. We’ve also heard that easing restrictions means you want to kill black people, who have been disproportionately affected by this virus; it’s a mess. And they’re all wrong.  read more