Ted Nugent took to Facebook Live recently and asked why the previous 18 COVIDs didn’t lead to shutdowns in the country.
The Nuge spoke at-length during an April 7 Facebook Live video during which he said, “This year’s tour is canceled again. The production companies won’t let us tour again this year. Dirty bastard, lying, scam, smoke-and-mirrors COVID-19 freaks.”
Nugent continued, “You know, I guess I would ask you, because I’m addicted to truth, logic and common sense, and my common sense meter would demand the answer to, why weren’t we shut down for COVID-1 through -18? There was a COVID-1, and there was a COVID-2, -3, -4, -5, -6, -7, -8, -9, -10, -11, -12, -13, -14, -15, -16, -17, -18. COVID-1 through -18 didn’t shut anything down, but woah, COVID-19 [did], even though it’s 99.8 percent survivable. Why didn’t we shut down for the AIDS epidemic or the flu or the Spanish Flu or the bird flu or the West Nile flu or influenza every year?”
Nugent added, without citing any evidence, “They claim five hundred thousand people have died from COVID-19. Bulls—. I believe that medical examiners in all 50 states have gone, ‘I put down on the death certificate that he died of asphyxiation, but they made me put COVID.’ ‘Well, this guy was stabbed to death, but they made me put down COVID.’ ‘This guy was run over by a tandem gravel truck doing a four-wheel drift and the crows be pecking at your flesh, but they made me put down COVID-19.’
Snopes noted in a post on Nugent’s video, “The respiratory disease COVID-19 was named in February 2020 for the coronavirus that causes it — SARS-CoV-2 — and the year in which the first disease case was reported — 2019. Following that logic, Nugent’s proclamation of a ‘COVID one through 18’ would suggest that there had been 18 years of coronavirus infection rates at a global scale, which is unfounded.”
As of publishing, tweets related to Nugent’s video have led to him being a top ten trending topic on Twitter. Here are some notable tweets in response to Nugent.
yall just figuring out now that ted nugent isn’t exactly an intellectual heavyweight
— Jessica Huseman (@JessicaHuseman) April 12, 2021
Ted Nugent doesn’t believe 500k people died from COVID in the US.
He’s right because 562k people have died from COVID in the US.
— Devin Duke (@sirDukeDevin) April 12, 2021
Ted Nugent asked, “Why weren’t we shut down for Covid 1 through 18?”
This is the kind of thing that’s cute when small children say it.
— Silent Amuse (@SilentAmuse) April 12, 2021
I would also like to know what happened to Maroon 1 through 4! https://t.co/MzpNwZonUg
— Carlos Alberto Sanchez #mexicanphilosophy (@locoprof) April 9, 2021
Not that I wanted two straight Ted Nugent tweets, but…
How can someone be so blatantly idiotic as to ask why we weren’t shut down for Covid’s 1-18?
The ignorance is mind-boggling!
— Brian O’Sullivan (@osullivanauthor) April 12, 2021
World renowned epidemiologist Ted Nugent wonders why there were no lock-downs for COVID-1, COVID-2, COVID-3, etc. all the way through COVID-18. Then COVID-19 came along when Trump was pres’nit and all of a sudden we were Lock Down Central. Coincidence? Ted Nugent doesn’t think so pic.twitter.com/BV9bXJgSn0
— Jeff E. Guy (@jeffyguy) April 12, 2021