MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn has blasted “dumbf*ck politicians” for blaming the media for supposedly exaggerating the risk and spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).
While the coronavirus outbreak has resulted in thousands of deaths globally and has hugely affected the stock market, some supporters of President Donald Trump say the growing crisis is largely the work of the U.S. media.
Flynn took part in a Facebook Live session during which he addressed the postponement of MACHINE HEAD‘s European tour due to coronavirus concerns and touched upon the hysteria around the pandemic.
“The media is not causing hysteria,” he said.
“Everybody keeps saying that too: ‘Oh, the media is blowing it out of proportion.’ The World Health Organization, WHO, just declared this a pandemic. And the head of the WHO said, ‘I am flabbergasted and stunned at the lackadaisical attitude of so many countries about this. This is way more serious than people are taking it.’ And that’s why he declared it a pandemic.
It is officially declared a pandemic. It’s not the media. It’s dumbf*ck politicians not taking this f*cking seriously and putting all of our lives in jeopardy by not acting and acting all blasé about it. Dumbf*ck politicians going around calling it a Democratic hoax to f*ck up his [Trump‘s] re-election. Yeah, it’s a bunch of dumbf*ck politicians who ain’t doing sh*t. That’s why he called it a pandemic — why the head of the WHO called it a pandemic. It’s nothing to do with the media. Your friends are calling it a flu? You’ve gotta take it serious. It’s for real.
“In 32 years of touring, I’ve never — ever — seen anything like this in my life — ever,” he continued.
“My kids’ schools [in the San Francisco Bay Area] are about to close. I just got the announcement today. My kids’ schools are closing. Nobody is sick. Not a single student, as far as they know, has the coronavirus; not a single faculty member has the coronavirus, but as a precaution, they are closing it down.
“Norway just closed the borders. Nobody is allowed to go to bars, gyms — you can’t go to the gym; you can’t go to the movie theater, the cinema. Nothing. This is real, man. And then all these motherf*ckers, instead of trying to help the people, all these dumbf*ck politicians, all they’re trying to do is help the f*cking corporations and f*cking Wall Street.
“Here in America, we don’t even have the official [coronavirus] test yet. I’ll tell you what — once the official test gets into the real doctors’ hands and the hospital’s hands, forget it. Right now, according to the f*cking web site, it says we’ve got outbreaks in California, Seattle, New York, Maine and now one in Chicago. Bullsh*t. Bullsh*t! We just don’t got the proper testing. And I guarantee you — as soon as the proper testing comes on, it’s gonna be crazy.
“My kids’ schools are closing — high school and junior high; all the schools around here are closing. I’ve got friends in Italy. The whole country is on lockdown. Nothing is open except for grocery stores and pharmacies — that’s it. No bars, restaurants, gyms, movie theaters, clothes, shopping — anything. That’s it. It’s serious. It’s f*cking serious.