At the end of his nightly newscast, NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt decided to lecture Americans for not giving up their “free will” and bowing down to every government mandate or guidance related to the COVID-19 pandemic, even suggesting that their non-compliance is to blame for the one million deaths he claims his network has tallied to date.
“An NBC News count showing this country has now reached more than one million COVID deaths,” the smug host announced before bemoaning how the “soul-crushing milestone comes just as we begin to peek out from behind our masks, lower our guard, willing the pandemic to be over.”
Holt then proceeded to talk down to his audience, claiming the one million COVID deaths in the United States “forces us to confront some tough questions, like how many of those one million deaths might have been prevented” Holt asked before continuing his arrogant lecture: “we counted on the tools, the vaccines, the masks, the distancing, but we forgot about the unpredictability of free will, mistrust in science, and simple human behavior.”
He then remarked on how life in the United States has changed during the pandemic, and since:
It was hard enough to process 750,000 deaths, 500,000, a quarter-million before that. Each milepost leaving us as unsure as the next as to what such a moment called for. Maybe because the pandemic changed our rituals of death and grief. Tearful good-byes between families and dying loved ones not at bedsides but via iPad. Funerals delayed or bypassed altogether. At the moments we most needed the comfort of others, we were forced to be apart. How could it not have changed us?
He ended by remarking how “One million dead sounds like an ending to a horrible story, not a chapter. But that's what it is.”
Lester Holt blaming Americans’ “free will” for over one million COVID deaths was made possible by the endorsement of Liberty Mutual. Their information is linked so you can let them know about the propaganda they fund.
To read the transcript of this segment click “expand”:
NBC Nightly News
5/4/2022
7:27:23 p.m. EasternLESTER HOLT: Before we go, a few words about the news that broke shortly before we came on the air tonight. An NBC News count showing this country has now reached more than one million COVID deaths. Today's soul-crushing milestone comes just as we begin to peek out from behind our masks, lower our guard, willing the pandemic to be over. But the slowly rising tally of the dead won't let it be. And forces us to confront some tough questions, like how many of those one million deaths might have been prevented? We counted on the tools, the vaccines, the masks, the distancing, but we forgot about the unpredictability of free will, mistrust in science, and simple human behavior.
It was hard enough to process 750,000 deaths, 500,000, a quarter-million before that. Each milepost leaving us as unsure as the next as to what such a moment called for. Maybe because the pandemic changed our rituals of death and grief. Tearful good-byes between families and dying loved ones not at bedsides but via iPad. Funerals delayed or bypassed altogether. At the moments we most needed the comfort of others, we were forced to be apart. How could it not have changed us?
One million dead sounds like an ending to a horrible story, not a chapter. But that's what it is. A number that shakes our consciousness, demands our attention, forces us to pause and consider who and what we have lost. You've got to believe there are better days ahead. That's Nightly News for this Wednesday. Thank you for watching. I'm Lester Holt. Please take care of yourself and each other. Good night.
