Fox News host Tucker Carlson warned against those downplaying the seriousness of the coronavirus spread.
In his Monday night “Tucker Carlson Tonight” opening monologue, Carlson pointed to Italy’s country-wide lockdown as a scenario that could easily befall the United States sooner than most want to think.
“The Chinese coronavirus epidemic turns out to be just that: an epidemic. There is no denying that now,” he began.
The Fox News host criticized both the left, who out of fears of being called racist refuse to “blame the most racist nation in the world for the spread of this virus,” and the “other side,” who have “spent weeks minimizing what is clearly a very serious problem.”
“Nobody wants to be manipulated by a corrupt media establishment,” he said. “There’s an election coming up. Best not to say anything that might help the other side. We get it. But they’re wrong.”
“The Chinese coronavirus is a major event” that will “affect your life,” Carlson contended before citing current death statistics that show the coronavirus has a higher death rate than the flu. For answers as to where the United States could be in a few weeks, he pointed to Italy, a “modern, developed Western country” that has been brought “to a standstill.”
“If that trend holds here in the United States, it will be just a few weeks until we are where Italy is now,” said Carlson. “In a few months, if nothing stops the virus, there will be millions of cases here.”
“In other words, our country is likely to experience a painful period we are powerless to stop,” he said. “None of this is justification to panic. You shouldn’t panic. In a crisis, it’s more important than ever to be calm. But staying calm is not the same as remaining complacent. It does not mean assuring people that everything will be fine. We don’t know that. Instead, it’s better to tell the truth. That is always the surest sign of strength.”
The Fox News host then laid out several steps to prepare, including breaking “our dependence on China for essential medical supplies.” (RELATED: Twitter Is Full Of Awful Takes On Ted Cruz’s Self-Quarantine)
“We really are that dependent on China for masks and medical equipment and for basic medicines,” said Carlson. “It is shocking to wake up one morning and find ourselves in this supine position, dependent on a country that hates us. The people who made us this dependent on a hostile foreign power deserve to be punished for what they did. That won’t happen, probably, but we can at least try to fix the damage they caused.”