Host of CNN's "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" got an earful from Americans on Tuesday after she tweeted that people who are not medical doctors should not suggest lifting economy-crushing lockdowns originally designed to mitigate the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus.
"Anyone who's not a doctor saying we have to just accept SOME deaths to reopen the country needs to take their family to a crowded place and serve food to anyone who needs it."
Cupp was responding to comments made by former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie that strongly suggested reopening the United States economy as quickly as possible, even though some people would still succumb to the deadly Wuhan coronavirus.
New rule: Anyone who’s not a doctor saying we have to just accept SOME deaths to reopen the country needs to take their family to a crowded place and serve food to anyone who needs it. https://t.co/c5PWnmXjft
— S.E. Cupp (@secupp) May 5, 2020
Cupp's remarks, in contrast to Christie's, suggested that only a prediction of zero deaths from the COVID-19 infection would be an acceptable benchmark to reopen the economy. As of this week, over 30 million Americans have filed for unemployment while trillions of dollars of taxpayer money has been pumped into fledgling businesses, under-earning and laid-off workers, and government agencies.
As the economy came to a grinding halt in March and governors demanded that their citizens limit their outings, forgo social interactions, abandon church services, and rely on telecommuting, media personalities like Cupp remained highly compensated and busy with work.
Elected leaders who signed Executive Orders, enacted state of emergencies, and asked their citizens to stay home did so with the intent of "flattening the curve" of the disease. That is, to make sure hospitals, staff, and equipment were in place and ready to treat a nation gripped by pandemic while we go on about our normal lives. Thanks to six weeks of isolation and mindful social distancing, the nation has achieved that, even in the hardest-hit places like New York and New Jersey. Many states have even passed their projected "peaks" of COVID-19 cases by weeks.
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Social mitigation and state-wide lockdowns, which confined people to their homes and destroyed millions of jobs, were never framed by expert medical advisors or epidemiologists as a new way of life until there's a cure or the disease is irradiated. The intention was always to slow the spread of the illness enough to let the doctors and scientists catch up as best as they could.
While Cupp and other elite media figures pontificate about keeping the economy closed because no deaths from the disease are acceptable, countless Americans are being swallowed by poverty and addiction. Meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, for example, have been shuttered across the country because of the lingering lockdowns, leaving many broke, desperate, anxious Americans with limited options for mental help.
New rule: any self-absorbed person getting a guaranteed paycheck during quarantine needs to take their checkbooks to people who can't meet their mortgage or feed their families and pay anyone who needs it.
— Physics Geek (@physicsgeek) May 5, 2020
Cupp suggested that anyone who advocates for Americans who need to get back to work should take their families out to a crowded place and serve food to those who need it, which might not be a bad idea. Businesses that choose to reopen in relaxed states should have the authority to serve whomever they like and it seems certain that volunteers will be needed to help the millions of unemployed, hungry Americans.
This just in: Woman being paid millions of dollars a year for hosting a TV show says “I can keep doing this until the doctors say that people can get back to work, and anyone not getting paid right now that feels differently should purposely put their family at risk”.
— Jeff Smith (@Jeffsmith5084) May 5, 2020
Others noted that Cupp's suggestion that only medical doctors should be allowed to weigh in on when to open the economy also raised eyebrows, as it didn't appear to be in line with any U.S. policy about public health decisions.
Setting aside the destructive idea that only doctors should set public policy, the fact is we accept SOME deaths every day in hundreds of ways. This kind of risk aversion would mean never leaving the house and authoritarianism. https://t.co/dLaaXvRvBx
— David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) May 5, 2020
Some simply noted the fantasy Cupp put forward in which a healthy economy can only exist if everyone in the country is healthy too.
Another example of how we’ve gone from “flatten the curve” to “shut up if you think we are going to have to balance economic and public-health considerations going forward” https://t.co/C4BuzF5GaF
— Rich Lowry (@RichLowry) May 5, 2020
New rule: Anyone who's not unemployed saying we just have to accept 30-50 million jobless and a new Great Depression needs to take her family to a soup kitchen or unemployment line and give her bank account number to anyone who needs it. https://t.co/BHI8bdyGdV
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) May 5, 2020
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