The Patriot Post® · The Nashville COVID Email 'Cover-Up'

Making national news today is the latest controversy over Democrat efforts to suppress business activity in order to depress what was a booming Trump economy, thus, bolstering the 2020 prospects for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

As I wrote in February, the Democrat Party would use the CV19 pandemic to drive the economy into recession and then use that recession to win the 2020 presidential election. I would argue that Demos have done just that, and the economic shutdown in reaction to the viral pandemic has been, at best, excessive. I write this even though I have had personal friends die of COVID — one more this week.

Regarding Nashville, media reports from the Washington Examiner, National Review, and others are highlighting a cover-up of communications between Demo Mayor John Cooper’s office and the city’s health department. The accusation is that the mayor’s office concealed the fact that there were few COVID cases being sourced to restaurants and bars, and yet the city continues to heavily restrict patronage of those businesses.

Having spoken with local restauranteurs and bar owners for their perspective on this matter this morning, here is what I have learned.

Indeed, there was an effort to cover up such data from early June after the city had allowed limited reopening of restaurants and bars in May. That effort, while reprehensible, appears not to be related to a nefarious motive of inflicting undue pain on restaurants and bars but rather to prevent confusion given the fact that there was a dramatic surge of Nashville COVID cases in June. But the mayor’s office should have released that conflicting data at the time, with an explanation about those concerns, rather than conceal it. The statement released by his office is still obfuscating the issue.

Where restauranteurs actually do have a legitimate complaint is that Mayor Cooper has recently implemented further restrictions on the hours of operation for restaurants — with no evidence that it is going to reduce the COVID case load. Mayor Cooper has not answered an inquiry in that regard.

I am no fan of the Nashville Democrat Party mafia, but reporting on these matters, particularly by conservative media, needs to be accurate and in context. As with my last effort two weeks ago to correct the record on a viral social media misinterpretation of CDC data on COVID deaths, we must all be cautious not to reframe an egregious error to fit a political narrative.