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Former NYT Reporter Says Trump’s COVID Remark May Be ‘Smartest Comment He’s Ever Made’

"We need to take back our lives, our schools, and our whole world"

   DailyWire.com
NEW YORK, NY - MAY 16: Alex Berenson attends 2016 PEN America Literary Gala at American Museum of Natural History on May 16, 2016 in New York City.
Desiree Navarro/WireImage

Alex Berenson is an odd creature — he’s a former New York Times reporter who actually doesn’t hate President Donald Trump.

Berenson, author of a dozen spy novels, spends much of his day on Twitter highlighting data as he argues that the media overestimate the risk of COVID-19.

So Berenson was watching when Trump wrote on Twitter: “I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good! Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!”

Berenson responded: “Maybe the smartest comment @realdonaldtrump has ever made. For too long we have let this virus – and the media’s hysteria around it – dominate us. We need to take back our lives, our schools, and our whole world.”

Berenson has coined a perfect name for the mainstream media’s coverage of COVID-19: “Panic Porn.” He has also authored “Unreported Truths” about COVID-19, and he appeared Monday night on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” where he elaborated on his statement and explained what Trump really meant.

“That might be the most presidential thing this president has ever said,” Berenson said. “He’s not actually saying ‘Don’t be afraid of COVID.’ He’s saying don’t be afraid of one another. Because this is a respiratory virus. It spreads between people. And the only way to make it go away permanently is to lock us all away permanently. And that can’t happen. That is not compatible with life.”

Berenson, who lives new New York City, said when he walked around a “deserted” Times Square at the height of the outbreak, it looked “as if a neutron bomb went off.”

“Six months ago, even then, that response really didn’t make sense but there were reasons for it,” Berenson said. “But we are six months on and we know that if you believe the [World Health Organization] and 750 million people have been infected with this, that the death rate is about 1 in 1000… if you believe in the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] numbers, it might be 997… it is a tiny death rate. And we have gone crazy and we have sacrificed our kids and we have sacrificed society and Donald Trump walked out of that hospital today and said what needed to be said. We have to stop being so afraid of this.”

“This country — we put people on the moon! We’re the first manned flight in 1903. What has happened to us that this rather dismal virus has scared everyone to death? I do not understand it and we have to get out of this,” Berenson said.

On Monday evening, Trump put out an upbeat video on COVID-19. “One thing that’s for certain: Don’t let it dominate you. Don’t be afraid of it. You’re gonna’ beat it. We have the best medical equipment, we have the best medicines. All developed recently. And you’re gonna’ beat it. I went, I didn’t feel so good. And two days ago, I could have left two days ago. Two days ago I felt great, like better than I have in a long time. I said just recently, better than 20 years ago. Don’t let it dominate, don’t let it take over your lives. Don’t let that happen. We have the greatest country in the world.”

Related: CURL: Mainstream Media Go All In With ‘Panic Porn’ Over COVID-19

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