Demo House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) declared Thursday, “Lives are at stake. This is not a time for name-calling or playing politics.” But that is all Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have been doing, nonstop, for the last week. They have a sordid and disgraceful history of politicizing suffering and death.

Pelosi claimed that the Trump administration’s request for $2.5 billion in funding was “long overdue and completely inadequate,” and that she doesn’t “think the president knows what he’s talking about.” According to Pelosi, “Weeks after [Trump] called for slashing the CDC budget during this coronavirus epidemic, this undersized funding request shows an ongoing failure to understand urgent public health needs.”

Schumer picked up on Pelosi’s viral political play, declaring: “All of the warning lights are flashing bright red. We are staring down a potential pandemic and the administration has no plan. We have a crisis of Coronavirus and President Trump has no plan, no urgency, no understanding of the facts, or how to coordinate a response. We must get a handle on the Coronavirus and make sure the United States is fully prepared to deal with its potentially far-reaching consequences. But the Trump administration has been asleep at the wheel. President Trump: There’s a pandemic of Coronavirus, where are you? Where is your plan?”

Schumer dismissed the administration response as “too little too late,” and asserted it is “indicative of [Trump’s] towering and dangerous incompetence.”

After acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney suggested that the best thing Americans can do in regard to coronavirus, is turn off their televisions, tune out the Democrat and Leftmedia fear mongering, Schumer said: “For Mick Mulvaney to suggest that Americans turn off their TVs and bury their heads in the sand when they’re worried about a global health pandemic is Orwellian, counterproductive, dangerous, and would be repeating China’s mistake. Trump and his team have to stop blaming everyone but themselves, focus less on political rallies and more on solutions to combat the spread of coronavirus.”

And then there were the Demo campaign trail claims that Trump had cut the pandemic budget. Mike Bloomberg claimed, “[Trump] has defunded – he’s defunded Centers for Disease Control, CDC.” Biden claimed, “[Trump] has cut the funding for the entire effort.”

Those claims are patently false. According to an Associated Press fact check, Congress has actually increased funding. “The National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention aren’t suffering from budget cuts that never took effect.” Regarding Schumer’s claim that Trump has no plan, the AP notes: “The public health system has a playbook to follow for pandemic preparation – regardless of who’s president… Those plans were put into place in anticipation of another flu pandemic, and are designed to work for any respiratory-borne disease.”

Regarding Pelosi’s political play, Trump stated the obvious: “She’s trying to create a panic. … She should be saying we have to work together. We should all be working together.” And regarding the Pelosi/Schumer claims that the administration’s proposed funding is not sufficient, Trump responded that the House is responsible for budget allocations and can allocate what it wants.

But, as I noted yesterday in “The Politics of a ‘Fear Pandemic’,” beyond the Beltway banter, the coronavirus fear Democrat Party leaders and their Leftmedia publicists are fomenting is having dire consequences on economic stability, greatly exacerbating the challenges of disrupted economic supply lines between China and the U.S.

The “pandemic of financial fear” resulting in the 10% drop in equity-market values this week could by week’s end be the biggest loss in any week since the 2008 financial crisis. On Thursday, the Dow had its worst one-day point drop in history (-1,191).

The significance of the market drop runs far deeper than the impact on investments and retirement plans of American workers. The financial markets are the most immediate and visceral indicators of business and consumer confidence, and that combined confidence largely influences the direction of the economy.

Two years ago in my column “Will Democrats Get the Pre-Election Recession They Want?” I noted, “More than half of Americans own stocks and other types of investments, including their homes, the values of which are dependent on a strong economy. More than one-third of corporate stock value is held in lower- and middle-income Americans’ retirement plans, such as IRAs and 401(k) accounts.”

I concluded then, “Democrats will do everything they can to set up the pre-election recession they need to defeat Trump. They know the best way to achieve that goal is to undermine confidence in our economy, a model they perfected ahead of Barack Obama’s 2008 election. … The consequence of the Demos’ political games: Caught in the political crossfire are tens of millions of American workers and their families, whose jobs and income prospects will fall victim to the Demos’ politically induced recession — the direct result of having thrown economic confidence under the bus in order to attack Trump.”

And here we go again. The Pelosi/Schumer “viral panic” narrative is undermining consumer and business confidence. They are playing fast and loose with the job stability of all working Americans and their families. Pelosi said, “The market drop is disturbing,” but I can assure you that she and her Democrat ilk are celebrating off camera, knowing that what is bad for American workers is bad for Trump’s reelection prospects.

The net worth and retirement plans of all middle income families is taking a big hit, thanks to the disgraceful Pelosi/Schumer fear pandemic tag team…

On Leftmedia partisanship, political analyst Matthew Continetti succinctly notes, “The only predictable fallout of coronavirus? Partisanship.”

According to Continetti: “The pundits are having difficulty settling on a historical analogy for the COVID-19 coronavirus. Will the spread of the disease be President Trump’s Katrina or his financial crisis? Now that it is interested in coronavirus, a familiar pattern will set in. Data will be publicized without the slightest sense of proportion. The most outrageous scenarios will receive the most attention. Speculation will be paraded as fact. And every conceivable negative outcome, from infections to deaths to plunging stock values, from reasonable and warranted travel bans to unanticipated diplomatic and economic fallout, will be related back to the president in an effort to damage his reelection.”

To that end, a New York Times columnist insists, “Let’s Call It Trumpvirus.” And that is exactly what Pelosi and Schumer hope will happen. According to NBC: “Trump calls Coronavirus Democrats’ ‘new hoax’” Politico repeated that lie: “Trump rallies his base to treat Coronavirus as a ‘hoax.’”

So, what will all this look like in three months? I estimate there will be real and significant health consequences in the U.S. — maybe the worst in decades.

According to the latest 2020 CDC influenza report, in the U.S. the current flu season has resulted in 29 MILLION diagnosed cases, 280 THOUSAND hospitalizations and more than 16 THOUSAND deaths. One of the flu virus strains this season has taken more than 8,000 lives.

But the U.S. COVID-19 deaths could far exceed the 2017-18 flu season deaths, when the CDC estimated the U.S. flu death toll was 80,000. The virus causing COVID-19 has mutated into two strains, and one may be much more aggressive. The “S-type” appears to be milder and less infectious, but the “L-type” is more contagious and accounts for 70 percent of cases. Unfortunately, though human vaccine trials will begin in early April, if successful the vaccine will still take 8-12 months before it is available.

And, make no mistake, Pelosi and Schumer are speculating on the bet that the coronavirus flu will have significant consequences in the U.S., so they can blame Trump in their crass and disgraceful effort to use the coming death and sickness as political fodder. Likewise, the Red Chinese will do anything to undermine Trump’s fair trade resolve, and they can count on Democrats to do everything they can to help!

The good news is, despite the Pelosi/Schumer political play, according to the latest comprehensive Global Health Security survey, here is the United States’ current preparedness rank: Overall: #1, Prevention: #1, Detection and Reporting: #1, Rapid Response: #2, Health System: #1, and Compliance with International Norms: #1. By comparison here is how China ranks: Overall: #51, Prevention: #50, Detection and Reporting: #64, Rapid Response: #47, Health System: #30, and Compliance with International Norms: #141. It is astounding, given the lethality of the COVID-19 coronavirus variant, that the death toll among Red China’s almost 1.4 billion people, most of whom are impoverished, is not already 10X higher than the current count.

(Visit our comprehensive China Virus Pandemic response and recovery page, and see our related pages.

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776

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(Updated)