Guess Where Trump’s Getting Herd-Immunity? From Rush Limbaugh's Racially Charged Diatribes

During a Townhall Meeting hosted by ABC News and George Stephanopoulos, President Donald Trump claimed the coronavirus pandemic that has led to the deaths of more than 200,000 Americans “is going away,” and would even without a Covid-19 vaccine, thanks to a “herd-mentality.” Although he meant to say “herd-immunity,” the president added, “We are going to be okay, we’re going to be okay and it is going away, … It would go away without the vaccine, George, but it’s going to go away a lot faster with go away without the vaccine.”

An incredulous Stephanopoulos asked, “It’s going to go away without the vaccine?” To which the president again said: “Sure, over a period of time. Sure, with time it goes away. And you’ll develop, you’ll develop, like a herd-mentality it’s going to be it’s going to be herd-developed and that’s going to be herd-developed and that’s going to happen, that will all happen, but with the vaccine, I think it will go away very quickly. But I really believe we’re rounding the corner, and I believe strongly … you’ll develop herd-like a herd-mentality, it’s going to be, disappear.” (1)

Herd-Immunity According to Limbaugh
It was clear Trump had been listening to Rush Limbaugh, who continues to push herd-immunity. In the early stages of the virus, he said, “I have to get something off my chest here. I, El Rushbo, have been asking why California has not had more coronavirus cases and more coronavirus deaths. There are 40 million people. Let me give you some numbers here.” After calling the Golden State a “cesspool of liberalism,” he said California had developed “herd-immunity,” which is why the number of cases were small compared to its population and New York. (2)

“My point is this, California, they’re already bragging about having flattened the curve out there. And I have my own theory about it. I think they’ve already gone through it. I think with all the Chinese arriving, five to 7,000 a day throughout December and January, I think a lot of people had this disease, didn’t know they had it, didn’t succumb to it, didn’t even have any symptoms to it, built up antibodies to it, we don’t know. But it didn’t spread as rapidly. But when you go to California and ask them about this, they have a different explanation.”

Racially Charged Herd-Immunity
Herd-immunity is a form of indirect protection from infectious diseases that occurs when a large percentage of a population have become immune to an infection, whether through previous infections or vaccination, thereby providing a measure of protection for individuals who are not immune. It is a recognized occurring phenomenon established over time, only when a pandemic has killed a significant number of people and their offspring becomes immune. This was clear in the 1930s when a significant number of children had become immune to measles.

What Limbaugh implied was not herd-immunity but “racial herd-immunity.” Racial herd-immunity is xenophobic. It has been used in history to blame and scapegoat certain ethnicities for spreading a disease. During the Middle Ages, for instance, Jews and Muslims were blamed as “collective carriers” of the Black Death. In the U.S., the Chinese were blamed for venereal diseases and Irish for typhoid. During World War I, Spain was wrongly blamed for the Spanish Influenza outbreak. Today, Blacks are associated with AIDS and Ebola.

Scapegoating China and California
Limbaugh further tried to discount California’s officials getting a head start on practicing social distancing. After reminding listeners of the high number of Chinese that live there and travel in and out of the state, he said, “It just can’t be. There has to be other reasons. Why won’t somebody be honest about what they are, what they possibly are? Well, because we’re being governed right now by social models, which tell us that social distancing is the only thing we can do. And in order to effect social distancing, we have to shut down.”

Limbaugh hammered away at racial herd-immunity, which by now included the homeless. “I want to back to the archives … Why isn’t California teeming with cases of coronavirus? You look at the homeless populations … where all kinds of sordid disease would be percolating out there and effervescing. Then you have the among of travel from Asia, specifically from China, into California cities.” He then argued that the 40-day period when Chinese people head home to celebrate the Lunar New Year Spring and came back caused “billions” to get infected.

Demonizing a People and Country
For Limbaugh and millions of rightwing listeners, including President Trump who awarded the radio pundit with the Medal of Freedom, herd-immunity and xenophobia plays well. First, it reinforces their worldview based on the premise that foreigners are threats to the nation and American people. Second, it defines immigration as a crisis, likening the movement of people coming into the country to an invasion requiring a hostile response. Third, herd-immunity strengthens their anti-science views and incorrect claims Covid-19 will disappear.

Limbaugh moreover reminded listeners that by New Year’s Eve, at least 430,000 people had arrived in the U.S. on direct flights from China. They included thousands which flew directly from Wuhan. He then implied the ChiComs (a disparaging term for China’s leaders) had kept the plague a secret in order to infect the U.S. and destroy its economic system; and that the Democrats were using the plague to destroy capitalism and establish their socialistic paradise. Limbaugh continues to tout herd-immunity to this day, as do many others on the far-right.

Massive Death Toll and Pandora’s Box
The top nation’s infectious doctors know that to get to coronavirus herd-immunity would lead to a massive death toll. Indeed, if the United States allowed coronavirus infections to run rampant to achieve possible herd-immunity, the death toll would be massive, especially among vulnerable people. What is more, herd-immunity is reached when around 70 to 90 percent of a population becomes immune to a disease either through infection and recovery or vaccination. Even when that happens diseases do not disappear. You just have less infectious carriers.

It is still unclear whether survivors of Covid-19 have immunity. Herd-immunity also would be a disaster for hospitals. Doctors and nurses would be overwhelmed with sick patients, and more people would die not just from the coronavirus but from other infections, too. Another danger is with so many infections the virus has a greater potential of mutating into other strains or a major pandemic that is one-hundred times worse than Covid-19. In the meantime, the virus has ravaged California, with the state recording over 200 deaths per day.

Imagine White, European Herd-Immunity
Something else to consider are the new studies that indicate the coronavirus began to circulate in the New York Area by Mid-February, weeks before the first confirmed case, and that travelers brought the virus in from Europe, not Asia. By analyzing genomes from the coronavirus taken from New Yorkers, Harm van Bakel, a geneticist, said, “The majority is clearly European.” (3) Separate teams at other medical facilities found the same thing. Using Limbaugh’s racial theory, imagine the outcry if he started talking about white, European “herd-immunity.”

Limbaugh ended his broadcast, which reaches millions of people, by repeating his racial slur: “So, Rush? So, Rush, what do you think is the answer in California? Okay. Let me just tell you what I think it is. I’m a layman. I’m just telling you what I think. I’m not a medical guy. I’m not telling you with ontological certitude. I think it is herd-immunity that took place in California in December. A lot of people had something; they didn’t know what it was. It wasn’t flu. They lived through it. They got past it. That’s what I think Happened in California.”

Herd-Mentality
On second thought and considering Limbaugh’s racial diatribes towards the Chinese and herd-immunity, maybe President Trump did not misspeak. David Icke noted: “The human race is a herd. Here we are, unique, eternal aspects of consciousness with an infinity of potential, and we have allowed ourselves to become an unthinking, unquestioning blob of conformity and uniformity. A herd. Once we concede to the herd-mentality, we can be controlled and directed by a tiny few. And we are.”

That tiny few is Rush Limbaugh, and the herd is Donald Trump.

Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John’s Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.WN.com. You can read more of Dallas’ writings at www.beverlydarling.com and www.WN.com/dallasdarling.

(1) See here.
(2) See here. “What I Think Really Happened in California,” Transcript., April 2, 2020.
(3) See here.