Tucker Carlson Slams U.S. Officials – Says They’ve ‘Spent Weeks Minimizing’ ‘Very Serious’ Coronavirus

Tucker Carlson hit the left’s response to the coronavirus when he opened his Fox News program Monday night, but also set his sights on what appeared to be the Trump administration, saying, “If we’re being honest, the other side has not been especially helpful either.”

“People you trust, people you probably voted for, have spent weeks minimizing what is clearly a very serious problem,” Carlson said. “It’s just partisan politics,’ they say. ‘Calm down. In the end this was just like the flu and people die from that every year. Coronavirus will pass. And when it does, we will feel foolish for worrying about it.’ That’s their position.”

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Tucker Says Americans Should Take Coronavirus Seriously, Despite What U.S. Officials Say

“No doubt these people have good intentions as they say, this many of them anyway,” Carlson continued. “They may not know any better. Maybe they’re just not paying attention, or maybe they believe they’re serving some higher cause by shading reality. No one wants to be manipulated by a corrupt media establishment — and it is corrupt. And there’s an election coming up. Best not to say anything that might help the other side. We get it. “

“But they’re wrong,” Carlson warned. “The Chinese coronavirus is a major event… It’s definitely not just the flu.”

Carlson didn’t name names, but President Donald Trump addressed the coronavirus concern by tweeting stats about deaths from the flu last year.

“So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu,” Trump tweeted. “It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!”

Carlson Looks at Italy on Lockdown and Compares to U.S.

Carlson noted how the entire country of Italy is on lockdown to monitor the virus.

“That’s far worse than here,” Carlson said. “But the only difference likely is time.”

“Early evidence suggests it takes about six days for the number of coronavirus cases to double,” he said. “That trend holds here in the United States, it will be just a few weeks until we are where Italy is now.”

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‘It’s better to tell the truth’

“In a few months, if nothing stops the virus, there will be millions of cases here,” Carlson warned, adding that Americans should be “calm” but also shouldn’t be “complacent.”

“It’s better to tell the truth. That is always the surest sign of strength,” Carlson said. “As they level with us, our leaders ought to prepare the public for what may come next. If a recession is coming, we need to save money for the possible effect of that. If travel restrictions are coming, we should know that too.”