March 9, 2020

This segment with "Judge" Jeanine Pirro is a perfect illustration of why Fox News is a toxic multiplier of lies and dangerous myths intended to keep their viewers stupid and billionaires filthy rich. In this segment, Pirro bows to the great god Money and lies to her viewers in order to keep them from taking reasonable precautions to protect their health and the health of their loved ones.

Slamming reporters for "doomsday reporting," Pirro then told anxious viewers that their response to go into "survival mode," is a very, very bad thing.

"They don't spend money. The economy suffers. They don't invest. The market suffers. They talk about taking their children out of school. Education suffers. They talk about canceling March Madness, Coachella and local businesses suffer," she warned.

That seems like a logical response to the risk of contracting a deadly virus, especially when so many people are uninsured now, thanks to Trump's gutting of the ACA. But for Pirro, it does too much harm to the economy, so go ahead, folks. Live and risk your lives worshipping at the altar of the markets. It's the least you can do, because clearly this whole virus is a conspiracy against Trump.

Look at this insane, wrong, and toxic argument she offers for why people shouldn't worry:

Now they say the mortality rate for coronavirus is higher than the flu. But consider, though, that we have a flu vaccine, and yet in 2019 16,000 Americans died from the flu. Imagine if we did not have the flu vaccine the flu would be a pandemic. So all the talk about coronavirus being so much more deadly doesn't reflect reality. Without a vaccine, the flu would be far more deadly.

I'm having some trouble actually parsing that argument because it's so ridiculous, but it seems to boil down to the idea that the death rates of the flu and COVID-19 would be the same if there wasn't a vaccine for the flu, which is utter nonsense, ignorant claptrap and dangerous propaganda. The whole point is that there ISN'T a vaccine for COVID-19 and won't be for 18 months, leaving everyone at great risk of passing the virus to others who are vulnerable because of age or other health conditions.

Pirro went on for 9 minutes, telling her loyal viewers to "snap out of it" and stop worrying. Unspoken: She and the rest of her Fox cohorts have to do this to bolster Trump, because if the economy tanks, he's done. No one wants a recession. But we might get one anyway because of this administration's horrendous response.

Her entire "pep talk" is above, or watch the absurd argument about the flu vs COVID-19 in the tweet below:

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