Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., addresses The Road to the Green New Deal Tour final event at Howard University in Washington, Monday, May 13, 2019. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is not one to let a crisis go to waste.

As my RedState colleague Bonchie wrote Monday, Democrats and their mainstream media allies have abruptly switched from correctly referring to the Wuhan virus as the Wuhan virus to calling it the coronavirus, and are labeling anyone who notes that it originated in Wuhan, China as “racists.”

AOC, who flashes the race/WOC card every chance she gets, rushed to join in but in a different way.

On Tuesday night during an Instagram Live video, the freshman Congresswoman declared that “straight-up racism” was behind people’s decisions to avoid Chinese restaurants over Wuhan virus fears.

“Honestly, it sounds almost so silly to say, but there’s a lot of restaurants that are feeling the pain of racism, where people are literally not patroning Chinese restaurants, they’re not patroning Asian restaurants because of just straight-up racism around the coronavirus,” she stated.

Watch:

.@AOC: "People are literally not patroning Chinese restaurants, they're not patroning Asian restaurants because of just straight up racism around the Coronavirus." pic.twitter.com/2tTabQCIdW

— Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) March 11, 2020

There are so many problems with this “argument” that it’s hard to know where to start. But let’s begin with one of the directors of the Flushing (NY) Chinese Business Association, who recently told CNN Business that even east Asian residents in New York were avoiding Chinese establishments:

Peter Tu, one of the directors of the Flushing Chinese Business Association, said the east Asian residents of his community and the public at large are now confused about what to do. Many are afraid to visit populated public areas, including neighborhood stores, banquet halls and restaurants that rely on them to stay in business.

“The mayor [Bill de Blasio] and President Trump say, ‘Don’t worry,’ but the CDC says something different,” Tu told CNN Business. “If you’re the people, who are you going to listen to? You’re going to listen to the CDC. You’re going to cook at home.”

In other words, it’s not just white people who are avoiding Chinese restaurants. Black people, Latinos, and other Asian-Americans also eat Chinese food, but are making similar decisions to cook at home to be on the safe side. This is not “racism.”

There are also concerns about eating at buffet restaurants where germs are more easily spread, which has caused MGM Resorts to temporarily close the buffets at some of their restaurants in Las Vegas. Many Chinese restaurants are also buffet-style restaurants, which is no doubt a big part of the reason why business has significantly dropped off.

Lastly, as the DC Examiner reports, sales of Corona beer have even dropped out of a mistaken belief that the Wuhan coronavirus is somehow tied to the beer:

The spread of the virus has also hurt sales of Corona beer. Anheuser-Busch, which makes the product, announced last month they had lost out on $285 million in revenue amid concern over the outbreak despite there being no association between the beer and the virus.

Should we blame that on racism, too?

I’m sure AOC has been “feeling the bern” of Bernie’s failing presidential campaign over the last week, especially after his big Michigan primary loss last night. But that’s no excuse for her to falsely accuse people across America of “racism” simply because they’ve recently decided more often than not to cook at home out of an abundance of caution.

Simply put, AOC is entitled to her own opinions, but she is not entitled to her own facts.

(Hat tip: Twitchy)

Related –>> Juanita Broaddrick Pinpoints Exactly Why the Media/Dems Are Politicizing the Wuhan Virus