Ever wonder where conservative morons kept pulling ridiculous claims from to defend their bad COVID-19 pandemic hot takes? We found the answer. It’s the work of a seedy little website called Flatten the Fear. It is a cesspit the likes of which haven’t been seen since the Dead Pool stage in Mortal Kombat II.
But is Flatten the Fear a scam?
Of course, Flatten the Fear is a massive fucking scam. Let’s start with their COVID-19 facts. You’ve probably heard mindless conservative talking heads drone on about these, but had no idea where the information was created. Well, here you go.
The best part has to be up at the top of the webpage where it says original source and then lists itself. That right there gives Flatten the Fear away as a scam. However, it only gets better from here. The “facts” are some of the most gerrymandered pieces of information you will ever see. They are truly a kernel of corn in a steaming pile of elephant dung. Let’s take a look at a few of these:
Most ICU beds —in most cases 75 percent or more—aren’t occupied by Covid patients.
So, this links to a site monitoring South Carolina ICU beds which is never stated. The stat itself doesn’t actually support anything unless your argument is that only illnesses using ICU beds at this moment matter. Any community college debate professor would give you an instant “F” if you tried using this weaksauce information as a supporting argument.
The resumption of elective—yet vital—surgeries is contributing to increased ICU-utilization rates around the country.
Here is a sentence with no supporting evidence whatsoever. Hell, our ridiculous bet on the Philadelphia 76ers to win the NBA Championship at least had some logic behind it. Also, if elective surgeries were vital, then they wouldn’t be elective in the first place.
In the U.S., the probability of being struck by lightning is higher than the chances of a school-age child (5-14) first getting and then dying of COVID-19.
There is so much to unpack here. The most obvious one is that this isn’t even a like-for-like comparison. It’s not school age children having the same chance of being struck by lightning as they do of getting and then dying from COVID-19. It’s everyone in the freaking country which skews these odds tremendously.
Also, school-age children don’t just hang around each other all day, every day. They have parents, teachers and what not, all of whom are at higher.
More children die each year from the flu than Covid-19.
You mean COVID-19, which hasn’t been around for an entire year, isn’t as lethal as the flu which has been around for more than nine months. That’s crazy.
20-second timeout
We need to take a break to note that 50 percent of the Flatten the Fear talking points are about children. It’s like a pedophile is writing this stuff or something.
Related: Learn more about stupid scams
Nearly half of all coronavirus deaths have come in nursing homes.
Firstly, this hasn’t been the case since June. Yet, it still considered a talking point despite being woefully outdated. Secondly, it wasn’t “nearly half”. It was 43 percent. Fox News thought it would be cool to round the number up.
The doctors behind the Flatten the Fear
The Flatten the Fear scam is supported by a bunch doctors practicing medicine in fields totally unrelated to infectious diseases. Oh, and they are all located in locations overrun by yokels and people with a limited educational background. Here’s a look at the all-star roster of doctors who want to tell you what’s what about COVID-19.
Dr. Kristin Held
Dr. Held is an ophthalmologist in San Antonio who basically just does LASIK surgeries. She’s also super into conservative causes such as The Institute for Justice and The Conservative Pundit. Her clinic isn’t exactly drawing rave reviews with patients either. Maybe she should spend more time on working and less time staring in crappy Flatten the Fear videos.
Dr. Ingrid Skop
That review about Dr. Skop says more than I ever could. But there are a load more negative comments about this quack who doesn’t think COVID-19 is a big deal.
Dr. C.L. Gray
Here is another guy featured heavily in the Flatten the Fear scam. Dr. Gray says he’s a practicing doctor, but he seems to spend most of his time doing Fox News interviews and hating on Obama. And like any good doctor, he cares more about faith than keeping patients safe.
Dr. Chris Stansbury
We have ourselves another eye doctor. Apparently, eyes and COVID-19 have a lot in common. Dr. Stansbury also happens to be a Republican candidate for the West Virginia House of Delegates which I’m sure has nothing to do with him also wanting to parrot false COVID-19 information.
Flatten the Fear is the worst kind of scam because it wants your money
Flatten the Fear has no real plan, goals or any tangible demand apart from spreading disinformation. However, they will gladly take your money. I mean the group claims “to tell Americans who are frightened of Covid-19 that they can safely reengage society”, but what the hell does that even mean?
And why would you want to give money to that? The issue is that people don’t want to get sick and die so some high school dropouts can drink beers and stand really close to each other at Lowe’s. If everyone would wear a mask and social distance this wouldn’t even be a problem.
At the end of the day though, people have a right to be frightened by COVID-19. It’s pretty f’n scary. All Flatten the Fear has done by using wildly unqualified medical professional and manipulated data is trick gullible people into thinking everything is okay when it is most definitely not okay.
It’s amazing the same people who want to babble on about how they walked 20 miles uphill to school in the snow can’t even tough out a few simple measures to prevent people from dying. Then again, maybe it’s not so amazing. Maybe they were full of shit all along.
