I was here in Dallas, back in 2014, when Patient Zero flew in from Africa infected with Ebola and was sent home from the ER. By the time he went back, he was a dead man walking. And the scare was on—with good reason. Tales of bleeding eyes and ears and insides turning to Jello gave one pause. In fact, my wife and I almost passed up an opportunity to see Ted Cruz, along with Sean Hannity and local luminary Marc Davis. Almost. But we went, and so did everyone else. The house that night was full. As I recall, the food shelves stayed stocked. Maybe I laid in a couple jugs of distilled water, but that was about it.

I was in New York City for Y2K. Now there was a scare, at least to hear the media tell it. Life as we knew it was coming to an end. We were heading into a new dark age. We’d all best learn how to grow corn in our back yards and how to dispose of all the bodies that a broken civil system would no longer be able to collect.

Oh yeah. They told us that. And to an extent, we believed it, at least to the point of holding our collective breath on New Years Eve, waiting for the lights to go out on Broadway. Of course, it had never been clear whose New Year would trigger the apocalypse: Sydney? Berlin? London? New York? Los Angeles?

Next morning, it was none of them. Computers did just fine. I don’t doubt that among the knowledgeable the problem was real, and those were the people who’d spent a year or more finding fixes in computer languages scarcely remembered, let alone still used. But no one told that story. It was the antithesis of a good news story: Problem identified —> Solution implemented —> end. No drama, no panic, no impending doom; just people facing problems and working through solutions.

Over 12500 people died from swine flu in the US and half a million worldwide. SARS claimed a 10% death rate. MERS racked up 34% mortality.

Meanwhile, reports of our current bug, while the data is still unstructured, suggests that for most, you get sick, you get better. The vast majority of cases in China have recovered and been released. While initial anecdotal evidence suggested that your body did not produce antibodies that would ward off reinfection, it’s looking like we just aren’t sure about about the long-term course of the disease in the body.

I don’t want to minimize this, and if you contract it, you are in my prayers. I may well need those prayers myself at some point. But I have to ask: what’s different about this crisis? If you really have to ask then stop reading and go back to Brian Stelter and Don Lemon. What’s different is an impending high-stakes election, and a party devoid of any sense of decency.

Can anyone doubt that this has been turned into a political club? Bill Maher got his wish: the economy (or, at least, the stock market) tanked. The search for the elusive Katrina, 2020 style, has finally borne fruit. And in the hallowed halls of Pelosi’s congress, prayers of thanks rise up to whatever god they worship that at last they may be delivered from the despised Donald. “Now we got him!”

Probably not. To the discerning, this is just another in the long list of cynical, but inept, failed efforts. If you need any proof that this is a crisis fueled largely by hype and wishful thinking, consider: if this was the dire threat that has been suggested, fear alone would force a measure of cooperation from the left. That they instead are ramping up the volume of criticism shows that they know it’s bullshit. They’re hoping that if they scream loud enough, you won’t figure that out.