There are some clear signs during this Wuhan coronavirus pandemic that show, generally, people don’t trust most government and media entities. One sure sign is public panic and another is public apathy. We’re seeing both. Regardless, the government and media are telling people to remain calm and not panic. Yet, some folks are freaking out and buying up supplies of stuff they may need and stuff they may not. The other day, a lady in my town yelled at a young woman who’d run by her because she ran too close.

Governor Jay Inslee of Washington State, where I currently reside, recently issued a paternal proclamation that people are still not practicing “social distancing” and conveyed something like, don’t make me come back there. I’ll be surprised if he hasn’t issued a statewide “shelter in place” edict by the time you read this.

And, last but not least, people are not only buying household and anti-viral supplies but also guns. And many of them are first-time firearms purchasers, including many people of Asian ethnicity, Chinese Americans in particular.

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Yesterday, while I was out driving, I saw people waiting in a long line out in front of Lynnwood Gun & Ammo, owned by great, patriotic Americans. I’ve never seen a line like that before, even during buying booms whenever the Obama administration threatened Americans’ gun rights. (Sorry, I didn’t notice if they were practicing social distancing while in line.)

The problem comes when government and media advice is all over the place and particularly when the media coverage is politically biased, which is all too often. When the media and some political opponents blame a virus on President Trump that clearly came from Wuhan, China and was just as clearly covered up by the Chinese communist government, how can Americans trust anything they report? If they’re willing to politicize a worldwide health pandemic to score political points (or sneak in abortion funding), then what won’t they do?

And if I hear one more governor announce that he or she is the first governor to do whatever to limit his or her state’s residents’ freedoms, I’ll explode. Yes, not a pretty picture in these days of needing to keep one’s bodily fluids to oneself. It’s not about you, governors, and it’s not about the people you rule; it’s about the people you serve. They can be hurt in many ways other than contracting the coronavirus.

Don’t we also have to question why the states with the most severe restrictions are mostly Democrat-run? Shouldn’t the reactions, whether over, under, or sensible, be across the board? Politics shouldn’t factor into it at all. Democrats are pro-government control? Could this be a part of the motivation—not letting a crisis go to waste? I don’t know, but we have to wonder, don’t we? After all, they’re the ones who said it.

When you have New York, California, Illinois, and New Jersey, four of the most leftist states in the nation issuing the strongest decrees to date, some places even outlawing being outside when you’re not supposed to be, don’t we have to question why Republican-run, normally for less government control, states aren’t taking as severe actions? In New Jersey, police were actually dispatched to break up two weddings, allegedly violating Wuhan coronavirus restrictions.

Frankly, I’ve been waiting for Governor Inslee to follow in those other states’ footprints, but he hasn’t, yet—knock on wood. He has a habit of following the leftist crowd. Still, I applaud whatever it is that has kept him rational in a sea of freak-out.

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I watch the news as much or more than the ordinary bloke because I write about this stuff. As a retired cop, I tend not to overreact, and I can feel what seems practical and what seems an overreaction. Now, I also know I could be wrong, but we really do have to wonder will this all have been worth it if we’ve destroyed everything we had to come back to. Okay, I know that was an overreaction. I admit it, but I say it as more of an intentional exaggeration. I obviously don’t mean “nothing.” But what will be left to come back to?

Nothing the government or media has told me is explaining why this disease is so much worse than any other pandemic—even the Spanish flu a hundred years ago, which killed in excess of 50 million worldwide and some 650,000 Americans.

The numbers don’t seem to add up for the damage to our economy and culture we seem so willing to do. So much of this seems like conjecture with very smart people arguing both sides. I admit it, I’m doing my best to follow the recommended protocols, but I am still confused.

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One thing we can’t avoid is, as much as the media and some politicians want to blame President Trump, again, this disease came from Wuhan, China. Before they tried to blame us, the Chinese told us so. We also can’t avoid the knowledge that the Chinese Communist Party government in Beijing covered up this outbreak and the many mistakes that led up to it and the death, misery, and economic devastation that has followed.

The communist government in China also tried to blame the U.S. military and they threatened to withhold life-saving drugs American companies had already purchased from China. Both endeavors can only have been perpetrated by an evil government. And that’s exactly what a communist government is: Evil.

American governments at the various levels and the left-wing media are not evil. However, just one more question: Don’t we have to wonder about the motivations of those who defend the Chinese communists by mirroring their talking points and reflexively opposing an American federal administration attempting to save American lives?