No, Americans Aren’t ‘Afraid’ of Coronavirus

Let’s start with some facts. 

COVID-19 is killing a lot of people. From the announcement of the first confirmed U.S. case on Jan. 20 to April 16, it has killed nearly 34,000 Americans. (I’ll ignore claims that number is inflated as well more persuasive arguments that it’s an undercount.) 

My longtime friend Bill Bennett, the former secretary of education, recently appeared on Fox News (where we are both contributors) to “put the data in perspective,” as one of the hosts put it. 

The upshot of Bennett’s position is that the COVID-19 threat has been wildly exaggerated from the outset. Contrary to every dictionary I can find, he says COVID-19 is not a pandemic, “but we do have panic and pandemonium as a result of the hype of this. And it’s really unfortunate. Look at the facts.”