Conservatives “are upset at the political leaders who think protesting and mass gatherings are more important suddenly than being able to feed your family or keep your business open,” said Stephen L. Miller, a conservative media critic and contributor to The Spectator.

President Donald Trump got in on the action on Wednesday, retweeting a spree of conservatives making similar points. “Remember, if you don’t social distance, you’re literally killing people,” tweeted commentator Buck Sexton, in a typical comment that Trump boosted. “That’s what they told us. The ‘experts.’”…

Nichols said the danger was that public health officials would be tuned out.

“I’m worried that this is going to be viewed as the politicization of expertise,” Nichols said. “You can’t say: ‘Listen to the science and keep your churches at 25 percent occupancy and socially distance your choir singers,’ and then say, ‘but thousands of people pressed together in a giant mass while screaming is worth the risk.’”