OP Ed: Another Victim Of The Coronavirus: TRUTH (And a Not-To-Forget Lesson For People In Our Business) Arthur Solomon, Public Relations Consultant The deadly coronavirus hates people. It has separated people from their families. It has separated people from their friends. It has caused massive unemployment. It frightens people. It is also responsible for an increase in hate messages on social media, targeting all minority populations, ranging from African-Americans, to Asian-Americans to religious Americans who practice Orthodox Judaism and to Jews who don’t. It has destroyed our way of living. The virus makes people very ill. Worst of all it kills people. But there is also a victim that was only made possible with the assistance of humans – TRUTH. President Trump’s revisionist remarks about the coronavirus, which is happening as I write this, on April 26, continues. The result: For many Americans is there is no TRUTH. And politics and the media have played a large part in aiding the virus to put TRUTH on life support. While TRUTH had been ill since January, it took a sudden turn for the worse in the U.S. on February 28, during a rally in South Carolina, when President Trump described the virus as a Democratic “hoax.” Other presidential remarks like saying, anyone who wants a test can get one; there are plenty of PPE supplies; doctors and nurses are hording them; we have the situation under control; his hawking of medicines for people infected with the disease as if he was a medical scientist, and his contradictory remarks about blaming the coronavirus on China, to name a few of the president’s comments, all added to put TRUTH in a grave condition. On January 22, President Trump, in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” surprised everyone by using his previously unknown experience as an epidemiologist by describing the coronavirus as “one person coming in from China.” We have it totally under control. “It’s going to be just fine.” Never a believer in what scientists say, the president, on April 23, shocked the medical world and disinfectant manufacturers by asking medical researchers if injecting the sanitizers into people’s body might kill the virus. The president’s remarks caused Lysol, on April 24, to issue the following statement, in part: “As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route),” Also on April 24, The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning against using hydroxychloroquine, the anti- malaria drug that President Trump has suggested, to treat coronavirus outside of a hospital or drug trial. The FDA said, “The drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine can cause dangerous abnormalities in heart rhythm in coronavirus patients, and should be used only in clinical trials or hospitals where patients can be closely monitored for heart problems” The president often says, “What do you have to lose? When he pretends to be a medical scientist by touting his Common Sense Degree from Trump University, the answer is people’s lives. What finally moved TRUTH to the intensive care unit were the comments of Trump’s lackeys, on his staff and in the media. For weeks before Trump declared a national emergency TV personalities on Fox News played down the seriousness of the coronavirus. They support anything the president says. It’s safe to assume (even though assuming is a “no-no” for serious journalists) that many of Fox’s viewers have been infected with the virus because they believe the Fox News opinion entertainers version of accuracy. Many viewers also probably died. And for those illnesses and deaths Fox management and commentators are responsible. (How they look themselves in a mirror is beyond me. They are as guilty of causing illnesses and deaths as is Trump and his staff lackeys. Maybe more so, because Fox News parrot’s what Trump says on various programs throughout the day and evening, with no fact checking as major publications do.) When the president accuses the media of reporting “fake news,” he should be pointing fingers at Laura Ingraham, who for weeks promoted the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a cure for coronavirus illness, along with her Fox News colleagues Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity. During a discussion about the anti- malaria drug on his “Tucker Carlson Tonight” program, the host introduced Gregory Rigano as an advisor to the Stanford University School of Medicine. Stanford said Rigano has no affiliation with the school. Rigano also touted the drug on Ms. Ingraham’s program. A prime example of “fake news,” which the president disregarded while claiming that accurate news reports were “fake news.” (Media Matters For America reported, “During a two-week span between March 23 and April 6, Fox hosts and guests promoted hydroxychloroquine nearly 300 times. “Of these nearly 300 mentions, the vast majority came from four Fox shows: The Ingraham Angle(84 promotional mentions), Fox & Friends (76, including Fox & Friends First and Fox & Friends Weekend), Hannity (53), and Tucker Carlson Tonight (22).”) But the New York Times reported on April 25, when Fox’s prime time commentators, the most closely watched shows on Fox, had a chance to warn viewers against ingesting disinfectants as a cure for coronavirus, as the president had mentioned, they sidestepped that matter entirely on Thursday, (April 23) said the article. Of course, Ingraham, Hannity and Carlson aren’t the only Fox entertainers to earn the title of Trump lackeys. On “The Five” telecast on April 24, Greg Gutfeld defended Trump’s statement about how a disinfectant might help in curing the coronavirus by saying, “how could anyone believe that Trump meant it when he said people should inject Clorox into their bodies.” Also Dana Perino said the president wasn’t suggesting that people should drink bleach. (What about injecting it, Ms. Perino?) And as usual, as she does on all her “Media Buzz” appearances, another lackey, Mollie Hemingway, a senior editor at The Federalist, bashed the media’s coverage of Trump on the April 26 program. Whether he meant it or not Trump’s remarks showed the danger of his delving into medical issues. Maryland’s hotline received more than 100 calls about using a disinfectant after the president’s comment. And The Maryland Emergency Management Agency issued a warning for people not to ingest or inject disinfectant on social media shortly after Trump suggested doctors could study whether disinfectants could be injected or ingested to fight coronavirus. In Washington state, officials urged people not to consume laundry detergent capsules. In New York City, the Daily News reported that the Poison Control Center saw 30 cases of “exposure to Lysol, bleach and other cleaners in 18 hours after Trump’s suggestion” that cleaning products might be used to treat coronavirus. (April 24 was not a good day, scientifically speaking, for Trump, and he refused to take questions after making his opening remarks at his daily presser.) A headline on CNBC on March 17 said, “Trump dismissed coronavirus pandemic worry in January — now claims he long warned about it.” But that didn’t prevent the lackeys on the president’s staff (including Dr. Jerome Adams, the Surgeon General, who fails to correct the president’s pseudo science medical statements) to pretend that everything Trump says, along with his Fox News sycophants, about the virus is handed down to him from God. Led by chief lackey Vice President Pence, the president’s other lackeys thank him for his leadership almost every time Trump takes a breath. Prominent among them are Attorney General William Barr, the president’s lawyer, and Robert C. O’Brien, the White House national security advisor. On April 9, after the president said he wanted to open the economy, The Hill, the political insiders’ web site, reported, “Attorney General William Barr late Wednesday suggested that the federal government in May should begin relaxing some of the “draconian” social distancing restrictions imposed throughout the U.S.” Barr said in an interview with Fox News that the U.S. had to be very careful to ensure some of the measures being adopted are fully justified, and there are not alternative ways of protecting people amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, said the article, written by Justin Wise. (I assume Barr made his suggestion based on his medical training at Trump University’s health facility. I also don’t recall the president’s lawyer being concerned about the states ordered shut downs until Trump said it was time to reopen the economy. Just a coincidence, I assume.) Further down in the article by Wise: “The comments arrived as the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, continued to climb in the U.S. As of Thursday morning, the U.S. hadreported roughly 432,000 confirmed cases of the virus and more than 14,800 deaths from it.” (That was then. The numbers as I write at 4: 25 pm on April 26 are much worse now. According to CNN in the U.S: Infected 957016, deaths 54435.) In a Wall Street Journal April 21 Op-Ed column titled, “Seven Fateful Coronavirus Decisions,” national security advisor O’Brien’s opening paragraph said, “Facing a once-in-a-century pandemic, a crisis that some have likened to a world war, the U.S. is fortunate to have President Trump in charge. I have witnessed him make the tough decisions necessary at every turn to keep America safe. Seven of these decisions stand out.” (Google the Op-Ed to read the entire revisionist history article.) The Op-Ed concluded with O’Brien, or maybe his ghost scribe writing, “In my assessment, the president’s decisions outlined here have saved tens or even hundreds of thousands of American lives.