Fox News hosts and others scoffed at COVID-19 warnings, putting their own audience in danger

In the critical early weeks, the conservative media's top-paid mouthhavers responded to the outbreak of a new potential pandemic in the usual, now-rote way. The thought of a new deadly virus touching down in America was deemed to be possibly a hoax, intended to damage Donald Trump by intentionally harming the national economy. The virus was thought to be a foreign bio-weapon, not because there was even a stitch of evidence but because much of the movement is now so wrapped around conspiracy theories that they can no longer view any news event except through that lens. The virus was thought to be an exaggeration peddled by Democrats and Dear Leader's other enemies to make Dear Leader look weak. The result is the expected one. Americans who follow conservative news sources are now far less likely to take the warnings of public officials seriously. The drive to insist on Dear Leader's brilliance will now be killing people, potentially in great numbers, and you can give Fox News and other conservative crank outlets the blame.