FARGO — They said it would be gone, this COVID pandemic, because it was all a hoax to take down Dear Leader.
Nov. 4 was the expiration date on the coronavirus because, just watch, it's all going to disappear after the election.
No need to wear masks or social distance or stop going to bars, they said, because it's all a Democratic ploy to make the president look bad.
Just wait until after Election Day, they said, and you won't hear another thing about COVID.
Even Dear Leader himself said this. It was a way, he opined, that Democrats could take away his huge rallies and his favorite way to campaign.
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Scientists, meh. They were all part of the scam. Fire Fauci, right?
A funny little thing happened on the way to being COVID-free, though.
We aren't.
The election came and went, we turned the page from Nov. 3, and yet here we are, still getting grim updates on COVID from North Dakota and Minnesota officials.
North Dakota reported 29 more deaths from COVID on Thursday, a single-day record, to go with 15 on Wednesday. As of Thursday, there were a record 9,224 North Dakotans known to be infected with the virus.
Gov. Doug Burgum, though he won't take meaningful action to slow the virus, called Thursday "the worst day" of the pandemic so far.
The virus continued to surge in surrounding states. Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota and Iowa are all seeing rising hospitalizations and intensive-care cases. And, yes, more deaths.
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All after the election, when the virus was going to magically vanish.
Tell the victims' families that their loved ones couldn't have died from COVID after Nov. 3 — it's impossible — because it was all a media and Deep State hoax perpetrated on Dear Leader. It's not real.
I dare you. Then duck, because they might punch you in the nose.
None of this is funny, even as the snark and sarcasm are being tossed around. There are people living their lives like the pandemic is fake, a manufactured story to stop their preferred presidential candidate from winning.
And people are still getting sick, still dying.
Election Day wasn't the end of the pandemic. By the looks of it, it might be the beginning of a new surge even uglier and deadlier than the first.
That's the danger in denying science. Eventually, it'll catch up to you. You can chortle with the right-wing talk-radio hosts making light of a public-health disaster, you can spout conspiracy theories on Facebook with like-minded troglodytes, you can spew "fake news" all you wish.
The truth is, we are still in the middle of the deadliest pandemic in a century. It will still be with us the day Joe Biden is inaugurated as our next president, and for many months after that.
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To think otherwise is dangerous.
The best we can hope for now is that the coronavirus is gone by the next election.
Readers can reach Forum columnist Mike McFeely at mmcfeely@forumcomm.com or (701) 451-5655
