A woman wears a mask as she commutes during rush hour on a subway, Tuesday, March 17, 2020 in New York. The subway is normally crowded but many people are staying home out of concern for the spread of coronavirus. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Democrats are going to be race-baiters no matter the situation and the Wuhan virus outbreak and resulting lockdown are no different.  It was only a matter of time before they started to exploit the latest crisis for racial posturing.  Last week, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congresscritter Ayanna Pressley, both Democrats and both from Massachusetts, wrote a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar demanding that public health officials compile demographic data on Covid-19 patients so that the all-important metric of skin color can be somehow addressed.  As if our public health officials do not have enough on their hands, they are now being asked to be racial bean counters also.  Anyone want to place money on how soon Maxine Waters or some other Democrat freak starts screaming “genocide?”

The letter is a thing of beauty and can be read in its entirety here.  Here is the pertinent, virtue-signaling part:

Any attempt to contain COVID-19 in the United States will have to address its potential spread in low-income communities of color, first and foremost to protect the lives of people in those communities, but also to slow the spread of the virus in the country as a whole…This lack of information will exacerbate existing health disparities and result in the loss of lives in vulnerable communities.

On its surface, the request is not that radical.  After all, we compile data on diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and other maladies by demographics.  It helps to determine possible reasons behind the diseases and why they tend to afflict certain populations more than others.  But, anyone is a fool if they believe that is the purpose behind this letter for two reasons.

First, in the present sense, nothing the Democrats have done or said have been helpful in the current situation.  They have used the Wuhan virus to whine and complain throughout, mostly to deflect blame from their own ineptitude.  Second, in the longer term, there is nothing the Democrats have said or done to give anyone the reason to give Democrats the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the issue of race… or anything else!

This is yet another example of political grandstanding and using race as the soapbox.  Two other senators- Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey- also signed the letter.  Three failed Democrat presidential wannabes signed that letter.  One supposes they got certified Squad member Pressley and some nobody from Illinois to sign onto it also to lend some gravitas.  It is shameful that a fake Native American and four black legislators are using a virus to perpetuate the notion of victimhood and then using it as a political weapon.

You know the letter is a political hit job given the footnotes.  Seriously- the New York Times and Buzzfeed?  You can look up that Buzzfeed article that they cite.  There are four quotes from actual doctors and two of them are attributed to Dr. Cameron Webb who just happens to be a Democrat candidate in Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District.  Another doctor quoted, echoing the lines of Dr. Webb, is Dr. Leigh-Ann Webb, his wife.  That is what passes for an authoritative footnote in the letter.  What a surprise- a Democrat congressional candidate grabbing on a racial issue to make a political point.

This had nothing to do with any concern for the black community.  When three failed Democrat presidential candidates team up with a member of the socialist Squad and a vocal opponent of Trump to cite an article from a Leftist publication, you know that racial politics is the true motivation.  You want to know how we know that?  Have a Republican ask for statistics on the outbreak of Wuhan virus in the Chinese-American community.  All five of them along with the rest of the Squad centered by the American Gothic Pelosi and Schumer would be screaming “racism” from the rafters.

But it is Democrats doing it, so they get a pass.  This is not a request for needed epidemiological data to help stop the spread of a virus that puts everyone at risk, not just “vulnerable communities of color.”

They should be ashamed of their playing the race card, but one doubts it.  This will not be the last time we hear about Covid-19 and “racial disparities.”  This writer is surprised it took them this long.