Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh suggested that the media has been exaggerating hospitalization rates for COVID-19 as the virus continues to rapidly spread through America.
Limbaugh made the remarks on the Tuesday edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show, claiming that some media reports of overcrowded hospitals and a stressed health care system were overblown.
“One of the things that interests me is the hospitalization numbers,” Limbaugh said. “Because if you look at Drudge, if you look at the drive-by media, you would believe there is not a single hospital bed in this country, right? You have been led to believe that every hospital is overflowing. That dead bodies are in body bags and refrigerated trucks that are being parked off to landfills or whatever.”
“There’s just not a hospital bed around, the hospitals are overflowing. If you have to go to a hospital you may as just well pack it in and die,” he added.
Limbaugh noted that he had researched current cases in his home area of Palm Beach county, Florida. He said that there were 514 cases with 11 deaths and 57 hospitalizations, suggesting that the virus was not having a severe impact on the county and extrapolating his findings to apply to the country as a whole. He claimed he could not find statistics for other areas.
The Florida Department of Health reported total cases in the state were just over 6,300 as of Tuesday, while New York state had more than 75,000 cases. The total number of hospitalizations for COVID-19 is likely to sharply increase depending on how many patients have been tested and diagnosed with the virus.
Trumpkin-Minion