Politicians violating 'Stay-at-home' orders

Real Clear Politics | May 5, 2020

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS: One of the reasons most of the western world embraced unprecedented mass quarantines this spring was due to the work of a single man: a British academic called Neil Ferguson. Ferguson is a professor at a college in London, but he’s also something of an international figure. He’s best known for his dire predictions about pandemics. Ferguson seemed especially panicked by the Wuhan Coronavirus. At one point, he suggested the coronavirus might be comparable to the Spanish Flu of 1918, which killed up to 100 million people.

On February 28, as the disease spread through Europe, Ferguson publicly endorsed the Chinese model of quarantine. Keep in mind that as Ferguson spoke these words, videos circulated on the internet showing police in Wuhan throwing screaming citizens in the back of panel trucks and driving them to some unspecified internment. Ferguson must have known the Chinese government’s response in Wuhan was extreme and utterly inhumane. He endorsed it anyway. That’s how serious Neil Ferguson was about the virus:

NEIL FERGUSON: One has to adopt community measures like the ones adopted in places in Wuhan in China. You try to reduce contact between people in the community so the sorts of measures which are important if you have anyone with respiratory disease or anything, stay at home until their symptoms are full resolved.

Leaders around the world paid attention to this. They took Ferguson’s advice and locked down their entire populations. The British government asked Ferguson to help design its quarantines, as a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies. Ferguson was happy to help shut down the entire United Kingdom. He just wasn’t interested in participating in it personally.

Today, the Daily Telegraph reported that Neil Ferguson ignored his own lockdowns. While the rest of the city stayed trapped indoors, Ferguson repeatedly invited his married mistress over to his apartment [...]. Perhaps most striking of all, he was infected with the Coronavirus at the time. Ferguson became sick and tested positive in mid-March. Not long after, he invited his mistress over. By doing this, he exposed her to a deadly virus. He also exposed her husband and children back home. When confronted today, Ferguson said this. Quote: “I acted in the belief that I was immune.” That was his explanation. The problem is, there’s no proof that’s true. Can someone who was sick a few weeks ago still transmit the coronavirus? We’re still not sure. For a famous scientist, Neil Ferguson is curiously ignorant of science. He’s also, obviously, an appalling hypocrite.

And he’s not alone. So many of the people making our policies are this way. Almost compulsively, again and again, they do the very things they punish you for doing. When caught, they acknowledged no shame. They are entirely lacking in self-awareness. They have no idea how absurd they are. They discredit themselves without even realizing it.

Almost immediately after telling the rest of New York to stay inside, for example, Mayor Bill Delasio loaded up his SUV with government bodyguards and headed for the gym across town in Brooklyn. A government spokesman later explained the trip necessary because DeBlasio’s gym, quote, “has been a huge part of his and his family's life.” Oh, OK. That makes sense. DeBlasio likes his gym, so he kept going there, despite telling others not to go.

Weeks later, DeBlasio still couldn’t stay out of Brooklyn. One day, he and his wife left their home in Manhattan and drove more than 10 miles to Prospect Park, for some sunshine and fresh air. A stunned citizen videotaped them there:

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seriously, you guys have a park. You live in the middle of a park. You don't need to non-essentially travel to Brooklyn.


DE BLASIO: Come on guys, give it a break.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, you won't even open roads for people of all backgrounds. I'm not going to give it a break. This is selfish behavior... This is the epitome of non-essential travel.

“Non-essential travel”? What’s that? When you make the rules, that’s not even a category. Ask Justin Trudeau, the preachy prime minister of Canada. On April 12, Trudeau released a video commanding Canadians to stay at home for Easter. It’s what Jesus himself would want, Trudeau declared:

TRUDEAU: So as we reflect on Jesus’ message of love and compassion, let’s think about our health care workers and essential service workers who are on the front lines every day... Let’s put into practice what it truly means to love our neighbors as ourselves by making sacrifices to protect their health. Let’s stay home for them.

Love means staying home. For you. Not for them. Not long after recording that video, Trudeau left the capital and traveled all the way to Quebec to visit his family at their lake house. Just like you’d want to do on Easter. If you were allowed to. But you’re not. So stop complaining.

You might want to get your hair cut, too. In Chicago last month, that wasn’t allowed for normal people. But the city’s mayor, Lori Lightfoot, had her hair done anyway. When she got caught, Lightfoot didn’t even blush. We played this clip on Friday’s show. It’s one of those videos that, no matter how many times you watch it, drops your jaw every time:

LIGHTFOOT: I’m the public face of this city. I’m on national media and I’m out in the public eye. And I take my personal hygiene very seriously. As I said, I felt like I needed to have a haircut. I’m not able to do that myself and so I got a haircut.

Shut up, proles! I’m on national television. Chris Cuomo knows the feeling. Last month, the CNN anchor drove to piece of property he owns in the Hamptons, where apparently he is building a new weekend house. At the time, Cuomo was infected with the Coronavirus, and suffering from symptoms. He was supposed to be quarantined in total isolation in his basement, full time. That’s where he told his TV audience he was. Night after night, Cuomo put on shows that revolved around his struggles with the illness — and his virtuous, even selfless efforts to prevent infecting others with it. Given all the publicity he was generating for being sick, at least one Hamptons resident was shocked to see Chris Cuomo out and about — and confronted him over it. Cuomo responded by calling the man a quote, “[...] loser.” The man’s real name is David Whelan. We invited him on the show to hear his story:

David Whelan: I just said ‘don’t you have the coronavirus. Shouldn’t you be quarantined?’ and his next words were ‘what the hell do you know about this? What do you know about the rules?

“I said ‘you’re not supposed to be out here,’ nobody had gloves on. Nobody had masks on.

No mask. No gloves. An infected man circulating among an unsuspecting population. You imagined Chris Cuomo was a responsible journalist. That’s how he describes himself. In fact he’s Typhoid Mary. There’s a big gap between the two. For the average person, hypocrisy is the most embarrassing thing. Getting caught the way Cuomo did would spur an existential crisis in most people. You might decide to devote the rest of your life to personal humility. You might move to Paraguay in shame and never speak in public again. Not Chris Cuomo. He didn’t look back. He blamed the other guy and kept going. Cuomo was right there on television just last night, haranguing people for doing precisely what he did:

Even if you don't have COVID, this situation is making us sick. Mental health is going to open eyes as never before, and that will be a good thing, but it's coming at a bad price.


CUOMO: But there is also feel, fatigue. People say "I've had it. Seasons changing. It's getting warm. Want to get back to it." Look at these fools, fools.

(PICTURES OF PEOPLE SITTING TOGETHER IN A PARK)

I know they want to be out there. Fools, it's not about you. What about the other people? And look, I'm not going to castigate you. That's not my job. I'm not your daddy.

“It’s not about you,” says the buff CNN anchor. Because if there’s one thing in this world Chris Cuomo can’t stand, it’s narcissism. He hates it. It doesn’t seem to occur to Cuomo for a moment that he’s actually describing himself.

It never occurs to any of these people. It’s never once occurred to Chris Cuomo’s brother, the governor of New York. Andrew Cuomo just gave a pungent press briefing, as he so often does. Maybe you saw it. If not, watch this clip and tell us what you notice:

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO: I think it's disrespectful of people not to wear masks. I mean, think about it... Do I think local government should be enforcing it? And should there be sanctions? Ye. Because it’s a public health emergency... And I think there should be a penalty because you could literally kill someone. You could literally kill someone because you didn't want to wear a mask.]

“You could literally kill someone” by not wearing a mask. Says the man not wearing a mask, who happens to be sitting next to other people not wearing masks. Do they hear themselves when they talk like this? On some level, of course. They know they’re hypocritical frauds. That’s why they lecture you so hysterically. It makes them feel better. They probably suspect you know it too. It’s so obvious. They just don’t care enough about your opinion to care what you think.

All of this would be merely infuriating if these people didn’t run the world. Unfortunately, they do. As we said at the top, maybe no single person has done more to lock down western civilization than Professor Neil Ferguson of London.