Even less forgivable is the naked, politically motivated selective use and manipulation of data to damage Republicans and favor Democrats. Typical of this is the steady stream of stories telling us what a great job New York and other (Democrat-controlled) Northeastern states have been doing in managing the spread of the virus, in contrast with the performance of other (Republican-led) states.

This is, literally, the opposite of the reality. You probably don’t need reminding that New York continues to enjoy the dubious record of one of the highest death rates of any region in the entire world.

Far from “flattening the curve,” New York, again, did precisely the opposite. It suffered a barely fathomable surge in deaths that overwhelmed much of the state’s medical capacity.

A related fiction is the suggestion that New York’s economy is now bouncing back as its cases and deaths, mercifully, continue to dwindle toward zero. Yet by the unemployment rate and other measures, the economic recovery in New York is lagging states such as Florida and Texas, with commuters and tourists still staying away.