Right-Wing Lie of the Day 0006

"It looks like the coronavirus is being weaponized as yet another element to bring down Donald Trump. Now, I want to tell you the truth about the coronavirus ... I’m dead right on this. The coronavirus is the common cold, folks." -- Rush Limbaugh

I think we all know by now that this was a blatant lie.

Although the viruses responsible for the common cold are, like COVID-19, coronaviruses, they are not the same thing, any more than SARS or MERS is the common cold. COVID-19, SARS, and MERS are far more dangerous than the common cold.

This lie seems to have been spread for political reasons, to both support Trump's downplaying of the COVID-19 pandemic and to portray criticism of Trump's COVID response as a liberal "weaponization" of the common cold.

For more information, see: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/feb/27/rush-limbaugh/fact-checking-r ush-limbaughs-misleading-claim-new-/

Jeff.

"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." -- H. L. Mencken, who indeed was a racist thereby proving himself right.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: Cold War Computing BBS (1:387/26)