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NY media: Why is de Blasio refusing to take a COVID-19 test, anyway?

“Do as I say and not as I do,” complains the New York Daily News. The New York Post also notes that the mayor talked out of both sides of his mouth on COVID-19 testing. The New York Times reports … nothing, actually, at least as of 1 pm ET, which might be the most ominous sign.

Allahpundit mentioned Bill de Blasio’s Day Off in a previous post, but it’s worth noting just how bad this looks — and what it might mean as politicians try to arbitrarily shut down some gatherings while encouraging others. Yesterday, de Blasio was a man of the people, man:

Today … not so much:

Bear in mind that de Blasio has hammered on testing for several weeks, ever since capacity began exceeding demand in the Big Apple. Public health officials need that testing to be sure they have a grasp on potential spread, so those who get sick need to ensure they aren’t dealing with COVID-19, de Blasio has urged. Even those who get out into non-social-distancing crowds might want to check out their status.

That warning is void where rank has its privileges, as the Post alludes:

De Blasio told reporters several weeks ago he would follow in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s footsteps and get a coronavirus test, but he never did, according to Goldstein.

Over the last couple of weeks, the mayor visited mass demonstrations around the city over the death of George Floyd — the Minneapolis man who was killed after a cop kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes — and attended a memorial service to Floyd along with thousands of other New Yorkers in Brooklyn.

Supposedly, the reason why de Blasio won’t seek a test is because his symptoms are gastrointestinal rather than respiratory. That doesn’t cut the mustard with the Daily News, nor with at least one member of the city council:

Goldstein said Hizzoner wouldn’t seek a coronavirus test and confirmed he hasn’t gotten one since the start of the pandemic.

That’s in spite of the fact he’s been encouraging New Yorkers to get tested for weeks, saying public health officials need the data to track the trajectory of the virus, and even marched at a “pray and protest” event in East Harlem on Sunday.

“He wrote the book on hypocrisy. During his six years as mayor, he’s been nothing but a hypocrite on most things and this is a great example,” said conservative-leaning Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens).

The question isn’t so much why de Blasio won’t get tested today, but why he hasn’t been tested at all. One has to wonder whether that has anything to do with de Blasio’s desire to attend rallies and protests for his own pet progressive causes. A positive test would require Hizzoner to quarantine for a couple of weeks, and de Blasio apparently doesn’t want to give up the option of pandering to his base. That, of course, overlooks the fact that de Blasio’s demand for New Yorkers to get tested puts them in precisely the same position, only in relation to conducting work and essential business.

This also seems like a strategy to prevent criticism of these massive protests in general. If he gets a positive result, the contact tracing would be enormous, or at least would be if New York wasn’t hypocritical about putting social agendas over science. If it comes back negative, though, it might tend to undermine the shutdowns that de Blasio backs — especially when it comes to political and social activity he doesn’t like. For instance, worship and Trump rallies (insert joke about redundancies here):

“The idea of people coming back together, full services, large numbers of people congregating… It’s not that time. That would endanger everyone and we have to be smart,” de Blasio said.

“We’re really making progress when it comes to this disease. But it is not time for large gatherings. It is not time to take the risk of going in the wrong direction. So I want to thank all our partners, our faith leaders. We’re going to keep communicating constantly. We’re going to look for every opportunity to support your efforts to restart [the] right way. But I want to thank our faith leadership for their clear resolve that we will do things all in the right time.”

That was only three weeks ago, by the way. The hypocrisy of de Blasio has breadth as well as depth. It also has prompted a lawsuit:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Attorney General Letitia James, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio are using coronavirus restrictions as a “blatant double standard” to discriminate against people of faith, using threats of fines and criminal prosecution, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.

Two Catholic priests — Steven Soos and Nicholas Stamos — and a trio of Orthodox Jewish congregants — Elchanan Perr, Daniel Schonborn, and Mayer Mayerfeld — in Brooklyn, represented by the Thomas More Society, filed the suit in the Northern District of New York after mass protests and looting occurred in the Big Apple following George Floyd’s death.

“Why is a large worship gathering deemed more dangerous than a mass protest, full of shouting, arm-waving people in close proximity to one another?” Christopher Ferrara, Thomas More Society special counsel, said in a statement to Fox News.

“These orders, both the emergency stay-home and reopening plan declarations, clearly discriminate against houses of worship,” Ferrara added. “They are illegally content-based, elaborate, arbitrary and pseudo-scientific.”

This is why de Blasio wants to avoid getting pinned down on his own COVID-19 status. He wants to eat his cake and have it too. The New York media is calling him out on it … well, most of it, anyway.

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