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The COVID-19 pandemic has done a pretty good job of showing which musicians, celebrities, friends and family members believe in science and who prefer conspiracy theories. But on the scale that rises above Van Morrison, Ted Nugent is in a league of his own.
The guitar legend and frontier right-wing extremist has long been known as the rock ‘n’ roll uncle for whom you did not want to sit at the Thanksgiving table, and hit the conspiracy-friendly Facebook Live forum (and was originally transcribed by Blabbermouth) yesterday to reflect on one of the most difficult questions for those who do not have a basic knowledge of science or recent etymology: “Why was COVID-1 to -18 not turned off?”
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The factual answer to the question is of course that there has never been a COVID-1, COVID-18 or any other COVID number before, because the ’19’ in COVID-19 stands for the year (2019) in which it was discovered. But that doesn’t matter to the Nuge, who blames production companies for canceling his tour plans for the year before calling them ‘dirty bastards, lies, scams, smoke-and-mirrors COVID-19 freaks’.
“I would ask you – because I am addicted to truth, logic and common sense, and my common sense meter would ask the answer – why are we not turned off for COVID-1 through 18.” Ask Nugent while wearing a robe that looks like it might come from the Joe Exotic collection. “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 [Narrator: there wasn’t]. COVID-1 to -18 turned nothing off but who, COVID-19, although it is 99.8 percent survivable. Why did we not close every year for the AIDS epidemic or the flu or the Spanish flu or the bird flu or the West Nile flu or flu? ‘
In addition to the designation of COVID-19 and the historical impact of pests such as the Spanish flu, Nugent also recited one of his favorite passages from the conspiracy theorists by questioning the actual death toll due to the disease.
“They claim that 500,000 people died from COVID-19,” Nugent said. ‘Bullshit. I believe medical investigators in all 50 countries are gone ‘I showed the death certificate that he died of suffocation, but they let me down COVID.’ “Well, this man was stabbed to death, but they made me COVID.” “This man was overpowered by a tandem ground truck that did a four-wheel drive and the crows tapped on your flesh, but they let me down COVID-19.” ‘
Of course, there’s a reason Nugent is not a doctor. Hell, the closest he was to the medical field is probably to be on the first page of Google results for ‘Cat Scratch Fever’ (albeit to several medical sites). But you can still watch the nonsensical Facebook Live video below if you want to see how he’s off the rails.
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