Rumor Control -- Updated

Coronavirus Rumor Control | FEMA.gov

Naturally, there are those who immediately assume (!) that anything put out by FEMA is a lie.

Seriously, if you happen to find the Twitter thread in which FEMA lists these myths, don't read the comments.

I refrained from reading comments to this one:

I hear unfounded rumors about #NationalGuard troops supporting a nationwide quarantine. Let me be clear: There has been no such discussion. ... For news about the great work the Guard IS doing to support the #Covid_19 response, click the link. #COVID19 https://t.co/JZROM4xfF9

— Gen. Joseph Lengyel (@ChiefNGB) March 20, 2020

 

Meanwhile, in Washington State...

We heard reports that a @target in Seattle was selling n95 masks.

My staff and others stepped in.

Those masks are now on their way to the health care workers who desperately need them. https://t.co/7sCM5kqyfs

— Governor Jay Inslee (@GovInslee) March 21, 2020

 

Apparently, government assets are seizing consumer goods from store shelves...

Great job!! Now, PLEASE SET UP SHELTER IN PLACE!!!! People aren’t staying home or practicing social distancing! This is at Rattlesnake Ledge today!! pic.twitter.com/S84ewSOPDn

— Fledra Hamill (@fledra_hamill) March 21, 2020

#ShutItDownJay this is ridiculous and we look like fools. All the deaths will only be made worse by the republican governor we will be stuck with because you won’t act.

— Kevin Tracey (@KP_Tracey) March 21, 2020

And the response is to beg the governor to lock the entire state down.

Look, social distancing and all that is a good idea; as an introvert, it's what I do anyway. But The Roads Must Roll; as a Son of Martha myself, the idea that we should all just hunker down and let everything stop because the grasshoppers have succumbed to hysteria disgusts me.

(OK, too many literary allusions in there, sorry, not sorry.)

And part of why I tweeted

Would I be regarded as exceedingly paranoid if I suggested the reason Democrat governors are rushing to tank the economy is to get @realDonaldTrump?@stevenfhayward

— Drang (@DWDrang) March 21, 2020

Do I really believe that one or more governors, possibly coordinated, decided "I know! I'll ruin the economy in the pretense of preventing the spread of the pandemic! That'll show that Bad Orange Man!"

No. They may think that what they're doing will really help, they may think they have to Do Something and this is all they can come up with, or maybe they think they have to be seen to Do Something, which is, after all, a common motivation for elected or appointed officials to Do Something Counterproductive and/or Stupid...

Although I do not rule out the possibility that the thought occurred to them that the bright side of a crash would be that Presidents are not usually re-elected when the economy turns bad.

UPDATE:  And just like that, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer make the question of "Would Democrats trash the economy to get Trump?" look a little more rational...