Rep. Don Young falsely claims hysteria drives coronavirus response

Rep. Don Young gave some bad advice to Alaskans Friday about dealing with the coronavirus. Some of what he said was not true and some of it was irresponsible.

In general, he downplayed the risks, complained about “media hysteria,” refused to emphasize the need for people to give each other plenty of room and said he wants to keep shaking hands.

He tried to excuse his absence from a key vote in Washington, D.C. by claiming he didn’t want to “be back there with that bunch of monkeys.”

Young, 86, is in a high-risk group because of his age. He had just flown in from Washington, D.C. to Anchorage at 3 a.m. that morning and spoke to about 80 people in Palmer.

He skipped the House vote on what he claimed was a “dumb” coronavirus relief bill, but complained about the “socialist” items in it.

“They took a bill that I think has to be passed because of the fear. And they added every little socialist idea in the world to it. And that’s why we didn’t vote on it yesterday morning. That’s why we haven’t voted on it today. And probably not tomorrow,” he said.

His prediction was wrong.

The House approved the bill early Saturday on a 363-40 vote with Young among the missing. The Senate approved the bill Wednesday, 90-8, with Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan praising the measure. President Trump signed it the same day.

On Saturday night Young appeared with a crowd at a Friends of the NRA banquet in Palmer. On Monday, he had a fundraiser planned in Anchorage, but canceled it because of the bar and restaurant closure.

On Friday, Young said President Trump talked about spending $50 billion “to solve a problem right now that’s been created primarily by hysteria.” (The amounts under discussion Friday were already much greater than Young claimed.)

“This is blown out of proportion about how deadly this is. It’s deadly but it’s not nearly as deadly as the other viruses we have. But we respond, I’ll call it the hysteria concept,” he said.

Young is no authority on the relative deadliness of viruses and his sense of proportion is way off.

Young said if people asked him why he wasn’t back in Washington, D.C. to vote on the “dumb bill,” he would say there was a chance “they’re going to shut down the capitol. If I want to be stuck somewhere I want to be stuck in Alaska. I don’t want to be back there with that bunch of monkeys.”

With that attitude, he should abandon his re-election campaign right now.

Speaking to senior citizens and Chamber of Commerce members in Palmer, Young said the threat of the “beer virus” is being exaggerated by “media hysteria.”

Young quizzed the audience about what famous person said, “The biggest thing all we have to fear is fear itself,” mangling FDR’s line, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

“That was when we were going to war. What did we do? We came together as a nation and we survived and we prevailed and we beat the enemy. And whether you realize it or not, we’re at war now, but mostly because of presentations by the mass media,” he said.

FDR made the comment not about World War II, as Young said, but about the Great Depression. FDR included the comment in his first inaugural speech on March 4. 1933.

Young did have one good piece of advice: “We will come out of this so-called mess. We will prevail, but you can‘t do it by going out to the store and buying all the toilet paper.”

Then he quickly veered back into erroneous territory, according to a recording of the event. He said the coronavirus is a “flu,” which it isn’t, and said there is too much panic in the land.

“We’re not achieving. We’re not looking. We’re stopping. We’re canceling. And when you think about it how many flu epidemics we’ve had in America today? 169 cases. 169 cases. There’re going to be more, may be more. But I’d say the exciting part about if you just look even in China where this thing originated, it peaked and it’s going down. It will happen here in the United States,” said Young.

(On the day Young spoke—the same day President Trump declared a national emergency—there were 2,800 cases in the U.S. and 58 deaths. The latest figures show 9,415 U.S. cases and 150 deaths.)

“This is not a new virus. It may be a new virus, but we’ve had these viruses before,” he said

“Think of 1918. Think about it,” he said. “I don’t know how many millions of people worldwide were involved. In Alaska alone, that’s why we’re running the Iditarod race today, the serum that went to Nome,” he said. “And the big thing in that one was it attacked the young people.”

The 1918 flu epidemic was a global catastrophe. It had nothing to do with the 1925 serum run to Nome, which was in response to a diphtheria outbreak. The 1918 epidemic also had nothing to do with the Iditarod.

About 1,100 people died in Alaska from that 1918-19 epidemic, out of an Alaska population of about 58,000. Worldwide, about 50 million people died, more than from any other illness in history.

It makes no sense to link the current global health crisis to the 1918 calamity and say the coronavirus isn’t all that bad by way of comparison.

“This beer virus I call it, the coronavirus, I call it the beer virus, I thought you’d like that. Anyway, it attacks us senior citizens. And I’m one of you. I still say we have to as a nation, as a state to go forth with our everyday activities. Be safe,” he said.

“I still like to shake hands. But if you shake hands go out and wash,” he said, or use hand sanitizer. He said people should not gather in large groups, but then added, there’s “a pretty large group here. But don’t hide, that’s all I’m asking.”

Young has no expertise in public health and his pronouncements that people should avoid “hiding” are reckless. Those who are experts say that people need to keep apart from each other, whether they have symptoms or not, to limit the spread of the disease.

Young’s message that Alaskans should “go forth with our everyday activities” may be the most irresponsible thing an elected official could say at this time.

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Here is a recording of the meeting in Palmer.