So Long Social Distancing, Goodbye #MeToo-We Hardly Knew Ye

Do you remember weeks ago when governors like New Jersey’s Phil Murphy and Michigan’s Gretchen Witmer issued “stay-at-home” executive orders requiring citizens to limit contact with friends and families, closing “non-essential businesses” and banning public gatherings, even at houses of worship? Jewish congregants who attended services in New Jersey being charged with violating Governor Murphy’s order? New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio threatening to arrest Jews who attend funeral services in Brooklyn? All in the name of stopping the spread of the terrible, horrible, no-good and deadly Wuhan virus? Otherwise, thousands upon thousands of people would die?

Since George Floyd’s death on Memorial Day, it’s not surprising that protests, marches and memorial services for Mr. Floyd have occurred across the country given the horrendous actions of the Minneapolis police officers, which have been consistently condemned by the left as well as the right and the United States law enforcement community. But what seems mystifying to many is the reaction of public health officials to the massive crowds of protesters standing shoulder to shoulder, chanting and yelling, some with masks, many without. How did the “experts” and elected officials react to people flagrantly violating the restrictive guidelines we were told were so essential to protect our lives?

Well, it turns out that for some public health experts there are certain things that are worth the risk of getting and/or spreading the Wuhan virus. Worshiping your God? Not so much. Protesting systemic racism? Go right ahead. 

Paul Mulshine, a Newark Star-Ledger columnist, noted recently that Governor Murphy participated in a protest rally in Hillside on June 7th, shoulder to shoulder with fellow protesters in violation of his own executive order (Mulshine found it ironic that the governor joined a protest against the government; isn’t he the government?). Similarly, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer violated her own lockdown orders on June 4th when she participated in a protest march in the Detroit area.

The family members and friends of loved ones who have died during COVID-19 lockdowns couldn’t attend the funerals. What a shame. Public safety, you know. 

But Al Sharpton gets to go to George Floyd’s funeral in Houston. 

Of course he does.

Take a look at the crowd at the June 14th rally for black transgender rights at the Brooklyn Museum. Read the NBC News report. Nowhere in the piece do the words “corona virus danger,” “social distancing,” “masks” or “Mayor de Blasio threatened attendees with arrest” appear. Go figure.

 Furthermore, in a blatant display of hypocrisy, about an hour after NBC posted the article, they posted another article reporting that “experts” were concerned about the possible spread of the Wuhan virus among attendees at President Trump’s planned campaign rally the following week. Talk about chutzpah.

How do we explain the silence of public health officials in the face of these repeated public gatherings that contravene the advice of the experts and lockdowns ordered by their devoted followers in state governments? Well… they actually haven’t been silent. As Glen Greenwald explains, several have stated publicly that they approve of the rallies and protests. Why? What has led them to this “radical reversal” on public gatherings in the face of this deadly pandemic, as Greenwald characterizes it? 

It’s certainly not science. Greenwald quotes the epidemiologist Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo: “We should always evaluate the risks and benefits of efforts to control the virus. In this moment the public health risks of not protesting to demand an end to systemic racism greatly exceed the harms of the virus.”

Greenwald then cites the former director of the CDC and New York City Health Commissioner Tom Frieden: “The threat to Covid control from protesting outside is tiny compared to the threat to Covid control created when governments act in ways that lose community trust. People can protest peacefully AND work together to stop Covid. Violence harms public health.”

Greenwald describes the open letter drafted by epidemiologists at the University of Washington which was signed by approximately 1,300 other professionals in the field. See excerpts of the letter below:

Open letter advocating for an anti-racist public health response to demonstrations against systemic injustice occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On April 30, heavily armed and predominantly white protesters entered the State Capitol building in Lansing, Michigan, protesting stay-home orders and calls for widespread public masking to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Infectious disease physicians and public health officials publicly condemned these actions and privately mourned the widening rift between leaders in science and a subset of the communities that they serve. As of May 30, we are witnessing continuing demonstrations in response to ongoing, pervasive, and lethal institutional racism set off by the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, among many other Black lives taken by police. A public health response to these demonstrations is also warranted, but this message must be wholly different from the response to white protesters resisting stay-home orders….

White supremacy is a lethal public health issue that predates and contributes to COVID-19….

In addressing demonstrations against white supremacy, our first statement must be one of unwavering support for those who would dismantle, uproot, or reform racist institutions….

This should not be confused with a permissive stance on all gatherings, particularly protests against stay-home orders. Those actions not only oppose public health interventions, but are also rooted in white nationalism and run contrary to respect for Black lives….

There you have it. See, you rubes, it all depends on WHAT YOU’RE PROTESTING. If you own small businesses, hair salons, barber shops, restaurants, etc., that have been ordered closed, you’re supposed to SHUT UP and suffer for the greater good. Moreover, exercising your First Amendment right to protest lockdowns or to go to church is not the same as your First Amendment right to protest white supremacy. And if you do protest lockdowns, you’re probably a white nationalist. 

Understand? Where would we be if we didn’t have professionals like Nuzzo and Frieden to explain what’s right and what’s wrong for us? Thank God for science, amirite? 

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Pity poor Joe Biden. Finally, Joe is the top dog in the Democratic Party. He’s leading the charge against President Trump (mostly from his basement). However, a little problem arose in the spring last year. Eight women, including Tara Reade, claimed that over the years then Senator Biden touched them or otherwise acted in a physically inappropriate manner so as to make them uncomfortable. Then Ms. Reade upped the ante in March of this year.  FiveThirtyEight reported that Reade stated that “in 1993, then-Sen. Joe Biden pressed her up against a wall in the United States Senate, kissed her neck and hair, slid his hand under her blouse, then used his knee to spread her legs and penetrated her with his fingers.”

Biden has denied Reade’s allegations.

Just as Brett Kavanaugh denied the claim of attempted rape made against him by Christine Blasey Ford in the middle of his Supreme Court confirmation hearings.  

But it seems that the reactions to Reade’s allegations of sexual abuse against Biden are a little different from the reactions of Democrats, the media and their followers to the claims made against Justice Kavanaugh. Remember senators being hounded by women in the halls of the Senate during the confirmation hearings, asking how they could support a would-be rapist? New Jersey Senator Cory Booker’s “Spartacus” moment? Now disgraced attorney and CNN presidential favorite Michael Avenatti’s promise of  additional witnesses against Justice Kavanaugh? What are we hearing from Democrats about Reade’s allegations against their presumed presidential nominee?

Nancy Pelosi: “I don’t think it’s disqualifying.”

New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: “I support Vice President Biden.”

And listen to Linda Hirshman, lawyer, political pundit, historian of social movements and author of  “Reckoning: The Epic Battle Against Sexual Abuse and Harassment” in her May 6, 2020 New York Times op-ed. The title says it all. “I Believe Tara Reade. I’m Voting for Joe Biden Anyway.” She goes on to discuss a philosophical doctrine, an 18th century philosopher and a modern one. Save yourself the time of reading it. It boils down to this: “Orangeman is bad” ( the blurb for her book on Amazon says that the book discusses the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal “when liberal women largely forgave Clinton, giving men a free pass for two decades.”)

So…. does it seem that to progressives, just as social distancing and locking down protesters depends on what the protesters are protesting, applying #MeToo standards to politicians depends on their party affiliation? It sure does from where I’m sitting.