How far-right MAGA 'conspiracy theorists' are still pushing unscientific 'covidiocy': libertarian

31 January 2023

In February 2020, the late far-right radio host Rush Limbaugh insisted that COVID-19 was no more dangerous than “the common cold” and that it was “being weaponized” by Democrats “as yet another element to bring down Donald Trump.” Limbaugh, who repeatedly claimed that smoking cigarettes wasn’t dangerous before dying of lung cancer in February 2021, believed that mainstream media reporting on the dangers of COVID-19 was overblown. But according to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, COVID-19 has killed more than 6.8 million people worldwide; that includes over 1.5 million deaths in the United States.

Three years after Limbaugh tried to convince his listeners that COVID-19 was a political issue instead of a health/medical issue, the MAGA far right is still politicizing the pandemic. Libertarian/conservative journalist Cathy Young, who is very much a Never Trumper, calls out MAGA “covidiots” and “conspiracy theorists” in an article published by The Bulwark on January 31.

Young isn’t without criticism of Democrats, liberals and progressives in her article, pointing out that some of them are now acknowledging that they were overly “aggressive” in 2020 when it came to “school closures and lockdowns.” But Young is much more critical of MAGA “covidiots” who continue to push unscientific claims, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk and Twitter owner Elon Musk.

“The covidiot ecosystem on the right — and, to some extent, in ‘anti-woke’ and ‘cultural dissident’ circles that don’t always explicitly identify as right-wing — continues to flourish,” Young observes. “Most recently, it’s been manifesting itself in the rather fanciful notion that people didn’t ‘suddenly’ die of heart attacks and strokes before ‘the jab’ came along.”

By “the jab,” Young is referring to COVID-19 vaccines, which even Donald Trump credits with saving lives. MAGA “covidiots,” she notes, are pushing anti-vaxxer claims while saying that Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s top White House health official, deserves criminal prosecution for his response to the pandemic.

“Once again,” Young writes, “covidiocy — usually dressed up as ‘COVID dissent’ — is not just the province of some radical and marginal right-wing fringe: It also implicates mainstream figures on the right. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who’s nowadays being touted as kinder, gentler, saner heir to the MAGA mantle, falsely claimed earlier this month that people who get the bivalent booster shot are ‘more likely to get infected.’ And in December, he threw a big, juicy chunk of red meat to the conspiracy theorists by asking the Florida Supreme Court to investigate ‘wrongdoing’ related to the COVID vaccines, including supposedly false claims about their safety and efficacy.”

Read The Bulwark’s full article at this link.

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