Limbaugh Opposes Testing Because It Means ‘More Cases’

Reprinted with permission from MediaMatters

From the May 14, 2020, edition of Premiere Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show

RUSH LIMBAUGH (HOST): It seems like every day we get some new scare tactic from some supposedly credible source. And what generally happens is, after some reporting of what everybody would consider good news, in less than a day, a couple of stories come along, maybe three, that try to throw cold water on the good news and make it sound even worse than it was the day before.

And that's what this is: "The World Health Organization warns it could take up to five years before the coronavirus pandemic is under control." This is just — it's irresponsible the way this stuff is being reported. And the reason it's being reported the way it is is because it's all political now.

Let's review. The first objective was to, what? Flatten the curve. And let me ask all of you a question. When the lockdown was first announced, when the shutdown nationwide was first announced, when it was first proclaimed — when you were told you couldn't leave your home, when you were told you had to maintain a distance of six feet whenever you talk to anybody, when you were told you had to wear a mask, when you were told whatever — did you think, were you led to believe that the shutdown would still be going on nine weeks, 10 weeks later?

Or did you think it was a two-to-three-week exercise to try to get a handle on things before things got out of control? I'll guarantee you, the vast majority of people thought it was a temporary thing. It's why there was so much acquiescence to it.

…

Then, after being told we had to follow the data — "Well, we can't end this lockdown, we can't go out, we can't return to normal until we have testing." Well, they didn't say anything about testing when they were flattening the curve. At every opportunity to end this lockdown — which is unsustainable — at every opportunity to turn this country around, "Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh, no, we can't do it until X," until we flatten the curve, until the data gives us clearance. Now we can't do it until we have more testing.

So Trump has ramped up — we got more testing available in America than anywhere in the world. Trump points it out. "Why is this a competition to you, Mr. Orange Man? When people are dying, what does it matter that we have more testing than anybody?" Because you people have been whining and moaning that we don't have enough of this stuff.

And I'm telling you, we got all the ventilators we need, we got all the N95 masks we need. We got all of the testing that we need.

"Well, we can't reopen without more testing." And the more testing we get — it's amazing how not enough testing it is. Now we got to have testing for everybody, every day— until that happens, we can't open.

Of course, testing has its own quirks attached to it. The more you test, guess what? The more cases you have. So they are then allowed to report skyrocketing cases. They never attribute it to the fact that more people are being tested, because the scare tactic is to make you think the virus is out of control. The virus isn't out of control anymore now than it ever has been. We're just able to find out more people who have it.

You know what else? The more testing you do, and the more people you reveal who have the virus, the mortality rate plunges. Ninety-eight percent of the people that get this virus recover from it. You would never know that, if you listen to the drive-by Democrat Party news every day.

So we get more testing, and then it becomes not enough. Not enough, we need to test everybody, every day. And then they say, "Well, you know, testing somebody one day doesn't tell us anything about the next day." Yeah, we know, but you're the ones that said we can't do anything without testing. "Yeah, I know, but testing only goes so far."

Now we need antibodies — we need an antibody test. They keep moving the goal posts on us.