CARLTON FLETCHER: Welcome to the politicization of the coronavirus

How can I be sure in a world that’s constantly changing?

— The Rascals

Some clever Facebook poster — and is there any other kind? — may have put it best: President Trump said there would be around 100,000 of you that die from the coronavirus … That’s a number he can live with.

Welcome to the politicization of a pandemic.

It started in earnest in Georgia on Monday when Gov. Brian Kemp announced that, despite warnings from health care officials the world over, that it will be OK for people in the state to go bowling, get their nails painted or get their hair did. Bowing to the pressure from Washington, Kemp decided it would be OK to risk a few more lives to win favor with the man in the White House.

On the TV news gabfest “Meet the Press” Sunday, Vice President Mike Pence — perhaps the most compelling reason to wish that Trump remain healthy while in office — essentially laid out the administration’s plans for “re-opening” the country. What he actually said was a great deal of gobbledygook and double-talk. The gist of his babble, though, was that the president wanted the U.S. to re-open for business so that we can get back to that robust economy that was going to be the issue that springboarded him to re-election. But Trump wants to hedge his bets and have state governors — like Kemp — do the deed so that if something goes bad — and health care officials are all in pretty much agreement that it will — then the president can pass the blame off on the state leaders.

Kemp, as expected, quickly fell in line and announced the limited business openings in the state with more to come.

Of course, there are those in the country — let’s call them Limbaugh’s loyal lemmings — who have insisted all along that the coronavirus is no more dangerous than the regular old flu and that it just might be a hoax perpetrated by Democrats across the country to try and slow down the economy and threaten Trump’s re-election. (All health care workers, who watch the thousands die each day, must be Democrats.) These people are the ones who are going to applaud Kemp — and Trump — no matter if we get what many say could be a spike even greater than the first wave of the virus.

So long as they and their families aren’t the ones dying, re-opening is OK.

There are others — hello, Gov. Kemp — who are going to ask how high when the White House says jump because they’re more concerned about their political future than they are some poor, uninformed population in rural Georgia that just wants to get out of the house after being forced there by some politician that’s never done anything for them before. Again … 20- or 30,000 Georgians is a number our state politicos are willing to live with.

What I’m hearing from more and more people I talk to, though, is that, it doesn’t mean a hill of beans what Kemp or Trump or anyone else in Washington or Atlanta says. Until people like Dr. Steve Kitchen, Dr. James Black, Joe Austin or Scott Steiner — the men and women who are on the front line in the battle against this virus — say it’s safe to stop sheltering in place and social distancing and wearing masks, they’re going to keep doing those things.

Perhaps it’s not fair to take shots at politicians who are more concerned with votes than they are the people who actually cast those votes. After all, like the scorpion that stings the frog who was giving his enemy a life-saving ride across the raging river, leading to both of their deaths, said, “It’s just my nature.”