Did COVID-19 turn former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie into a masochist? I only ask because he was infected with a virus that everyone knows is hyper-contagious, and yet he seems to be getting some sick pleasure out of publicly apologizing over and over again for something that wasn’t his fault.
He’s been doing this for a full week now, most recently on Wednesday in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal hilariously headlined, “I should have worn a mask.”
“It is never comfortable to deliver real criticism that includes yourself,” wrote Christie, who actually seems very comfortable delivering real criticism to himself. “But it was a serious failure for me, as a public figure, to go maskless at the White House. I paid for it, and I hope Americans can learn from my experience.”
Sure, Christie could have worn a mask when he went inside a building with other people because that’s what health officials are recommending right now as a way to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. But there’s no proof that he wouldn’t have gotten it even if he had.
There have been more than 8 million confirmed infections in the United States (there are likely a lot more that simply went untested), and the number can only go up. Does anyone believe that many of those people, perhaps even most, weren’t doing what they could to avoid catching it?
The communications director for Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris recently tested positive for the virus. She was probably required by the Biden campaign to keep a mask padlocked on her face, and yet she caught it.
This isn’t meant to discourage mask-wearing. Wear them. But Christie is wrong to state with certitude that they’re a fool-proof preventative. They’re not.
I’m not even sure that Christie has been following the news for the past five months. “When you get this disease, it hits you how easy it is to prevent,” he wrote in the op-ed. “We are asked to wear cloth over our mouth and nose, wash our hands and avoid crowds. These minor inconveniences can save your life, your neighbors and the economy.”
CNN needs to hit him with one of those on-screen “FALSE” graphics.
The disease is not “easy to prevent,” and it’s not simply a matter of wearing a mask, washing your hands, and avoiding crowds.
The virus is, again, highly contagious. It’s in the air.
And even just slowing this virus, to say nothing of the fantasy that it can be stopped, has not required “minor inconveniences.” It demanded that millions of people shut down their businesses, give up their jobs, and lock themselves in at home.
Just about the only thing Christie got right is that he should have been taking every precaution available, given that he has asthma, a health condition that put him at greater risk of succumbing to the virus.
Fortunately for him, he recovered just as the vast majority of people do. But unlike most people, he’s blaming himself for ever getting sick to begin with.
