Today, Lt. Gov. Dan Forest released this tweet.

It’s May 1st. Six months away from an election. And as you know, Forest has been campaigning to be governor for years. But look at the text of the tweet:

“If this same trend exists in NC, the Governor has no moral, ethical or rational justification for his current strategy.”

That’s a hell of a thing to say because I wonder if the Lt. Gov. even read the article he is tweeting out. It is from Bloomberg News.

Dated March 18.

The “trends” over the last 40+ days of this pandemic have certainly changed the more we have found out and the more we have come to understand that we still don’t know. Even the numbers have changed. These are the numbers that the article in Forest’s tweet is based on.

2,500 deaths from 31,500 confirmed case. Forest might want to see what the numbers are now. As of a few minutes ago, this was what Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported:

Since the March 18th Bloomberg report that Forest wants to so apply to May 1st realities, Italy has gone from 31,500 cases to 207,428 cases and from 2,500 deaths to 28,236.

With all that has happened in the weeks since the original report in Bloomberg, if  this “trend” was true then it would have been widely reported now?

And there is that term “previous medical condition.” Most everyone walking around has some sort of preexisting medical condition, obviously some much more severe than others.

But Italy has national health coverage and easier access to medical care. North Carolina didn’t even expand Medicaid – a decision that Dan Forest has supported. To think that everyone walking around in NC even knows any or all of his or her preexisting  medical conditions  is rather ignorant.

Makes one question if Forest has the “moral, ethical or rational justification” for misrepresenting what is happening.

Oh, and if that trend Forest refers to was “true” now, then Italy would have opened up a long time ago.