President Donald Trump is scrambling to expedite the reopening of the economy after the virus that's caused a national health crisis shuttered businesses across the country.
Health experts, however, are warning that a premature return to normal could result in even more deaths than the 30,000 American lives the virus has already claimed.
Among those experts is National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases head, Dr. Anthony Fauci. Fauci has consistently been the most reliable voice for accurate information at the daily White House press briefings regarding the pandemic—a welcome presence amidst the President's constant barrage of misinformation and incoherence.
Though the President's response to the virus hasn't given much reason to hope, his media mouthpieces like Fox Ness host Laura Ingraham have gleefully echoed his talking points.
Ingraham has been on a war path to minimize the threat posed by the virus, saying that numerous people were willing to risk contracting the virus if it meant they could go back to work and throwing her support behind protestors defying stay at home orders in Michigan.
In a Thursday night broadcast of her show, Ingraham attempted yet again to dismiss the virus—but this time Dr. Fauci was there to correct her.
Watch below.
Echoing the President's rhetoric that the virus would disappear "like a miracle," Ingraham said:
"On the question of a vaccine, we don't have a vaccine for SARS...We don't have a vaccine for HIV, and life did go on. So the idea that we're definitely gonna have a vaccine. We didn't really approach much else in the same way as we're pegging going back to normal with a vaccine, did we?"
Fauci, who was one of the most effective experts and advisors during the HIV/AIDS epidemic, quickly corrected her.
"HIV/AIDS is entirely different. We don't have a vaccine for HIV/AIDS but we have spectacularly effective treatment. People who invariably would've died years ago, right now, are leading essentially normal lives. SARS is a different story. SARS disappeared. We developed a vaccine...and then SARS disappeared and we didn't need to develop a vaccine for SARS. So, I think it's a little bit misleading maybe to compare what we're going through now with HIV or SARS. They're really different."
Apparently she forgot that HIV is spread through bodily fluids, making prevention measures much more effective, while the current virus is spread through microscopic saliva particles projecting through the air or landing on surfaces.
And though HIV/AIDS is no longer a death sentence for people with access to treatment, life hasn't "gone on" for the millions of people who have died and continue to die from it.
Ever one to buck the experts, Ingraham said that the virus could disappear.
Fauci acknowledged that any virus could just disappear, but laid out why it's unacceptable to continue as normal and hope that happens:
"I have to tell you, the degree of efficiency of transmissibility is really unprecedented in anything that I've seen. It's an extraordinarily efficient virus in transmitting from one person to another. Those kind of viruses don't just disappear."
Thankfully, people trusted Fauci far more than Ingraham—and they didn't appreciate the lengths she was going to to dismiss the threat.
If anyone needs to hear Fauci speak, it's Laura Ingraham's viewers.
It's clear how Ingraham prioritizes the lives and safety of her own viewers.
For a deeper look into Fox News's system of disinformation, check out The Republican Noise Machine, available here.
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