MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn has blasted "dumbfuck politicians" for blaming the media for supposedly exaggerating the risk and spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).
While the coronavirus outbreak has resulted in thousands of deaths globally and has hugely affected the stock market, some supporters of President Donald Trump say the growing crisis is largely the work of the U.S. media.
On February 28, then-acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney tried to play down concerns over coronavirus, saying that the liberal, anti- Trump media was packaging many of the stories to drive fear because "they think this will bring down the president; that's what this is all about."
Earlier today (Friday, March 13), Flynn took part in a Facebook Live session during which he addressed the postponement of MACHINE HEAD 's European tour due to coronavirus concerns and touched upon the hysteria around the pandemic.
"The media is not causing hysteria," he said (see video below). "Everybody keeps saying that too: 'Oh, the media is blowing it out of proportion.' The World Health Organization , WHO , just declared this a pandemic. And the head of the WHO said, 'I am flabbergasted and stunned at the lackadaisical attitude of so many countries about this. This is way more serious than people are taking it.' And that's why he declared it a pandemic. It is officially declared a pandemic. It's not the media. It's dumbfuck politicians not taking this fucking seriously and putting all of our lives in jeopardy by not acting and acting all blasé about it. Dumbfuck politicians going around calling it a Democratic hoax to fuck up his [ Trump 's] re-election. Yeah, it's a bunch of dumbfuck politicians who ain't doing shit. That's why he called it a pandemic — why the head of the WHO called it a pandemic. It's nothing to do with the media. Your friends are calling it a flu? You've gotta take it serious. It's for real.
"In 32 years of touring, I've never — ever — seen anything like this in my life — ever ," he continued. "My kids' schools [in the San Francisco Bay Area] are about to close. I just got the announcement today. My kids' schools are closing. Nobody is sick. Not a single student, as far as they know, has the coronavirus; not a single faculty member has the coronavirus, but as a precaution, they are closing it down.
"Norway just closed the borders. Nobody is allowed to go to bars, gyms — you can't go to the gym; you can't go to the movie theater, the cinema. Nothing. This is real, man. And then all these motherfuckers, instead of trying to help the people, all these dumbfuck politicians, all they're trying to do is help the fucking corporations and fucking Wall Street.
"Here in America, we don't even have the official [coronavirus] test yet. I'll tell you what — once the official test gets into the real doctors' hands and the hospital's hands, forget it. Right now, according to the fucking web site, it says we've got outbreaks in California, Seattle, New York, Maine and now one in Chicago. Bullshit. Bullshit ! We just don't got the proper testing. And I guarantee you — as soon as the proper testing comes on, it's gonna be crazy.
"My kids' schools are closing — high school and junior high; all the schools around here are closing. I've got friends in Italy. The whole country is on lockdown. Nothing is open except for grocery stores and pharmacies — that's it. No bars, restaurants, gyms, movie theaters, clothes, shopping — anything. That's it. It's serious. It's fucking serious.
" President Trump just declared a state of emergency. Too fucking late, man. Should have done that a long time ago. In fact, they should have acted way before this, and now it's out of hand.
"It's a crazy time, man. It's a crazy time."
Trump 's declaration of a national emergency means that he will enact the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, which allows the White House to mobilize the Federal Emergency Management Agency ( FEMA ) and direct federal aid to states hit by disasters and health crises.
In the U.S., the number of confirmed or presumptive coronavirus cases has reached at least 2,000, and the death toll has climbed to 41. Some modeling studies suggest the U.S. will have more than 8,000 cases by next week, 40,000 cases in two weeks, and nearly 150,000 cases by the end of the month.
