Last week, at long last, the United States woke up to the threat of a global pandemic. The stock market tanked, as investors began to doubt the Trump administration’s ability to handle the coronavirus. Sales of masks soared as cities across the country began to report new cases. On Saturday, Washington state reported the first American fatality, with five more following over the next two days.

Though not known for its sober, measured approach to current events, the conservative media has been clear in its response: Everything is fine.

Rush Limbaugh, who was recently awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, told his audience of millions that the virus is really just the “common cold.” He claimed that it was being overhyped by the director of the National Center of Immunization—who just happens to be the sister of former acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, a bad guy in the world of conservative infotainment, thanks to his role in the Mueller investigation—to damage the president.

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The politicization of coronavirus on the right is creating a hazardous situation, in which Fox News viewers and Rush Limbaugh listeners are being fed a potentially deadly narrative. The right has convinced its audience that the numerous scandals and crises of the Trump era are really nothingburgers, and that the president’s enemies will stop at nothing to cost him the second term that he deserves. They’ll even create a pandemic and cause a depression! But the decision to make coronavirus a political crisis first, an economic crisis second, and a public health crisis third is creating an environment in which Fox News viewers—who are disproportionately older—may ignore the warnings of public health officials.