MSNBC has issued a correction after a shockingly absurd tweet that claimed 50% of the US population could die from the coronavirus. T...
MSNBC has issued a correction after a shockingly absurd tweet that claimed 50% of the US population could die from the coronavirus.
The network’s social media account said that the quote, attributed to MSNBC pundit Chris Hayes, was an “editing error.”
The tweet originally quoted Hayes as saying “there is no option to just let everyone go back out and go back to normal if a pandemic rages across the country and kills 50% of the population.”
The correction said that Hayes had actually said “if a pandemic rages across the country and infects 50% of the population, and kills a percentage point, at the low end,” hypothetically.
Though this tweet may have been a misfire, Hayes has been one of the most alarmist and hyperbolic pundits out there.
During that segment, Hayes claimed that Republicans and Donald Trump are ready to kill a “million” senior citizens as a way of saving the economy from the coronavirus.
“And now, after about a week of that economic dislocation, as we continue to climb up the exponential curve of cases and of deaths, the President is now listening to voices on the right that say, ‘Really, what’s a million seniors when you’re thinking about the whole economy?’” Hayes said.
Hayes also claimed that coronavirus is just like air pollution — which he says conservatives also support.
“I should note: This has been a central conservative, right wing idea forever. It’s the same reason there are arguments for why we don’t need clean air regulations, even if tens of thousands of people die every year of lung disease from additional pollution. It’s just now it’s being applied in this extreme case in the midst of a global pandemic and a growing exponential curve,” he added.
Correction: The quote tweeted is incorrect due to an editing error.— MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 24, 2020
It should read: "if a pandemic rages across the country and infects 50% of the population, and kills a percentage point, at the low end"
The erroneous tweet is included for the record. https://t.co/ajvAfsmlKj pic.twitter.com/TFsk5Wk5lA
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