CNN has staked out a position in its coverage of Wuhan virus that can only be explained in one way. They perceive a drawn-out lock down of America as something that will damage President Trump’s reelection chances and therefore it is something to be preserved. The move by a handful of governors to re-open their states to normal life despite the latest pronouncement from the latest M.D. or Ph.D. who fancies himself as Galactic Commander, threatens to reveal the Wuhan virus’s new clothing, so to speak. Therefore, anything that can be done to discredit the incontrovertible data that shows whatever threat Wuhan virus presented is now largely abated must be discredited.

On April 27, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced the ‘lock down’ orders he had given during the height of the media frenzy would be allowed to expire at the end of the month. Texas, in doing do, joined Georgia and Florida in that company of states that prioritized the well being of their citizens over mindless fearmongering of our Karens and the preening egos of various scientists in phasing out rules that keep Americans out of work and no one a whit safer.

Yesterday, CNN’s John King presented what may very well be the most disingenuous, if not downright dishonest, bit of reporting done by that network in at least the past hour.

Texas is seeing the highest number of new coronavirus cases and deaths just two weeks after it officially reopened. @JohnKingCNN explores the trend in Texas as the debate on risk of reopening continues.https://t.co/5fvdaNxmba pic.twitter.com/pSV0U8fd1q

— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) May 15, 2020

In this story, King, truthfully (okay, it was sorta surreal in writing that), says that Texas has had an increase in Wuhan virus cases since the state re-opened and a spike of Wuhan fatalties, whatever that may actually represent, in the previous day. Then he proceeds to try to tie those two events into increased economic activity.

The real story is that when you fixate on a meaningless data point, like new cases, you are either a moron or a liar. New cases are largely a function of testing. If you want to increase new caes, you expand testing. Guess what happened in Texas? Since the re-opening Texas has administered most of the tests conducted in that state. As of April 30, 330,000 tests had been administered. The total, as of May 16, was 678,000.

CREDIT: Texas Coronavirus Dashboard as of 5-27-20

What has happened to the rate of positive tests? The rate of positive tests has declined from 6.02% to 4.83%.

CREDIT: Texas Coronavirus Dashboard as of 5-27-20

And those fatalities? According to a Journal of the American Medical Association published study of Wuhan victims in New York, it takes about seven days after infection for symptoms to develop that lead to hospitalization and the average length of hospital stay for those dying is about 5 days. Realistically, as these are averages, we don’t know how many of those fatalities King gets all smug and self-righteous over were acquired after April 30. We also don’t know the circumstances of how they acquired the disease. What we do know is that the daily number of deaths attributed to the virus is about the same as it was under lock down.

CREDIT: Texas Coronavirus Dashboard as of 5-27-20

What we do know is that the key indicator of the impact of the virus, that would be the number of people hospitalized with Wuhan, has stayed flat and more than enough capacity exists to treat the cases developing.

CREDIT: Texas Coronavirus Dashboard as of 5-27-20

The data is clear. Texas is definitely no worse off in terms of the impact of the virus on public health today than it was six weeks ago. Where it is a lot worse off is in economic damage, in people who have died or suffered permanent disabilities because they were afraid to go to the hospital, in families who’ve seen their entire livelihoods destroyed, in suicide, in drug and alcohol abuse, in communities and neighborhoods devastated.

Texas, unlike most of the nation, is on the way to recovery. But that is not an acceptable to the CNN hierarchy and their minions. Just as they lied to you about the Russia hoax, they are going to lie to you about this virus and about what is happening in the states that are re-opening.