RUSH: My friends, have you noticed all of the taboo subjects that we were not supposed to dare mention? That if we did mention these taboo subjects, that it was proof that we were conspiracy theorists, that we were kooks and we were wackos, that we were nuts, that we were off into conspiracy land? All of these taboo subjects, we’re not supposed to mention.

It was nothing more than an effort to get us to suppress the truth, to shame us, to embarrass us into not discussing the truth of all this. Because what’s happening now is all of these formally taboo subjects that we weren’t supposed to dare mention are now becoming objects of concern in the mainstream, despite — despite — the efforts of the left to censor discussion of these subjects.

For example, the Wuhan lab mystery — in other words, the origin of the coronavirus. “Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! It didn’t happen in a lab. No, no! If you think it happened in a lab, you’re a nut. If you think it happened in the lab, then you probably think our friends, the Chinese, weaponized it as a bioweapon! That’s dangerous. That’s irresponsible,” said the media, said the Democrat Party, said the Washington, D.C., establishment.

“You are a kook if you think that this virus happened in a lab! This virus came from the wet markets. This virus came because the ChiComs will eat anything because they’re starving. They will eat live bats. They will eat live snakes, and that’s where this virus came from, and you better stick to it.” But there were people who persisted and said, “No. We know of a lab worker in December who tried to warn everybody.

“He had discovered the virus. He is dead.” Others were aware of his work, and now, after attempting to warn the world, they have disappeared. But even with all of that, mentioning that coronavirus came from a lab in Wuhan was very, very taboo. “You can’t do it. You’re a kook! You are a nut!” Now look. Audio sound bite number 2, Bret Baier last night on Special Report with Bret Baier on the Fox News Channel…

BAIER: Multiple sources say this may be the costliest government cover-up of all time by China. There is a growing belief that the COVID-19 virus originated in the Wuhan lab, not as a bioweapon but as China’s effort to find and deal with viruses to show the world China was as good as or better than the U.S. on that front. It’s believed that the virus was bat to human and then human to human.

Patient zero worked at the lab, went into the population of Wuhan, and the virus quickly spread from there. China moved quickly to shut down travel domestically from Wuhan to the rest of China but did not immediately stop international flights from Wuhan. These sources say the World Health Organization was complicit from beginning, helping China cover its tracks.

RUSH: Oh, that’s another taboo. “You can’t be critical of the World Health Organization! How dare you? (sputtering) If you’re critical of the World Health Organization you really are a kook. You’re a wacko, right-wing kook. You are a nutcase. Shut up! You can’t talk about the World Health Organization!” (Snort!)

Folks, every one of these subjects on which you and I were right — and on which they attempted to suppress us, intimate us from talking about them, ’cause they didn’t want the truth out. Every one of them now — every one of them — is slowly becoming objects of concern. The virus did start in the lab, and the World Health Organization helped the ChiComs suppress the news. I believe, as discussed yesterday…

Anybody can have their own theory. I think once the ChiCom government found out what was happening here — and I know some of you think it’s a bioweapon. I’m not trying to ridicule you. But I’m not gonna go there, ’cause I don’t have any evidence for it. There’s plenty of evidence for other stuff to focus on, and this virus started in the lab while they tried to make us tell everybody it came from the wet markets.

It was so successful. Lindsey Graham goes on TV frequently and you know what his theme is? (drawl) “Close the wet markets now. Close the wet markets!” The wet markets are irrelevant. The fact that they opened the wet markets last week showed they know that that’s not the origin of the virus. So we have proof that the virus came from the lab.

We know that there’s of a ground zero patient, and we know the Chinese didn’t stop it. They could have. They could have shut it down. Why didn’t they? They are communists, number one. They’re not like us. You cannot analyze them using the same morality or life objectives or human traits. Communists, by their very existence, have to lie because communism is a lie.

Communism promises utopia. Is there one anywhere? And there’s communism all over the place and has been since the 1800s and that Looney Tune Marx, and yet there is no utopia. It’s a gigantic defeat. They have to keep lying about it. I’m convinced what happened is that once Xi Jinping, president for life, found out about this thing — found out how beside bad it is — he said to himself: “We’re not gonna be the only ones hurt by it.”

He allowed it to be spread so that other world economies would be affected like the Chinese economy. Now, if you look at it, the Chinese economy’s up and running. All of their factories are up and running. Apple stores, for example, all over China are up and running. Their factories, supply chains are up and running. Wuhan’s up and running. The wet markets are up and running.

It’s April the 16th and this thing originates there? We still have people in this country debating that we need to continue to stay shut down? It’s absurd. This economy is choked. This economy… Look, the economy is not being allowed to breathe. What would you do when you can’t breathe? You’ll do anything to get a breath. The U.S. economy is not being permitted to breathe.

There are people who want the economy to drown or asphyxiate. The U.S. economy has to get back up and running — and I’m gonna tell you something. The longer we sit here and squander this opportunity to get back up and running — the longer we sit here and self-inflict this economic disaster — the bigger the smile on the face of Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin and whoever else in the world considers us a threat and an enemy.

Another taboo subject (I’ve got a lot of these) is any comparisons to a severe flu season? “You can’t do that, Mr. Limbaugh! You can’t compare this to the flu. It’s totally different than the flu. You can’t do that!” Why can’t I? I can do whatever I want. I can try to make any bit of sense I want. What do you mean, I can’t mention the flu? “It’s totally different, Mr. Limbaugh!”

How is it totally different? “Well, we have vaccines or flu shots. Uh, uh, uh, people are accustomed to it. They’re used to it. This is unknown to us.” Well, yeah, let’s look at the numbers. Anytime you look at the numbers, that’s when they really tell you to shut up. That’s when discussing the flu really becomes a gigantic taboo you can’t mention. Why do you think…?

You know those numbers from 2009 and 2002, those astounding swine flu numbers? Why are they not all over the media? Why are they not all over everywhere to try to calm people down? Wouldn’t it be helpful if the American people could be told, “There’s far worse than coronavirus out there and we deal with it every year”? Why not use 2018’s hospitalization numbers: 810,000 people hospitalized for the flu in 2018?

It didn’t put any stress on the American hospital system. We don’t even remember it. Not much was said about it at the time because it is a norm. The number of flu deaths every year is 30,000 to 60,000. You point that out, and it’s, “No, no, no, no, no, Mr. Limbaugh! You can’t talk about that! (sputtering) No, no, no, no, no! It’s not, not, not permitted.” Why not? “Well, uh, uh, because flu deaths, were accommodated and allowed for. Uh, this is something brand-new and nobody knows anything about it.”

What if the number of coronavirus deaths gonna come in below flu numbers? “It doesn’t matter, Mr. Limbaugh. You’re not permitted to talk about it! Flu… Uh, you’re an idiot. If you don’t see the difference in this and the flu you’re an idiot.” They did everything they could to stop any comparison that would calm people down. All I’ve ever wanted to do in talking about this is try — to what little extent I might succeed — to prevent panic and to maintain a sense of proportion and reason.

So going back and telling people how bad it’s been in this country with other diseases that we’re familiar with, that we somehow accept 60,000 dead every year from the flu — 30,000 to 60,000. We accept however many people die in automobile accidents and from any other cause of death. Cancer, obesity, you name it. We accept it. But here’s something we can’t accept. “This is not permissible. You are not allowed to accept. You must forever be vigilantly scared to death over this!”

All of that designed to keep the U.S. economy floundering.

All of that is about doing that Robert J. Mueller and the whistleblower and Adam Schiff on Ukraine failed to do. All of this, politically, is about completing the dream of getting Donald Trump — and that’s why good news is taboo. That’s why intelligent, reasonable, rational comparisons are taboo. You want another taboo? Any idea, any notion that the virus got here before January 20th, you can’t talk about that.

“No, no, no, no! If you start telling people, Mr. Limbaugh, that the virus got her before January 20th, you’re a kook,” and they think nobody wants to be thought of as a kook, so we’ll shut up. Well, we know the virus got here in November now. We know it was here November-December. We know it was in California widely spread in California way back in November.

People didn’t know what it was, but they were getting whatever it was and thought it was the flu. We know it was here before January 20th. We know that it was identified publicly and admitted to by a Chinese lab worker in Wuhan in the middle of December. But you can’t — and we haven’t been able to — discuss that the virus was here earlier than January 20th.

You certainly have not been permitted to say that lots of people may have been infected without symptoms or without knowing it in the latter part of last year. “Oh, no. You can’t! Oh, that’s really Kookville, Mr. Limbaugh, if you go there.” Anybody that tried to go there. Another taboo: Hydroxychloroquine. “Oh, you can’t! You are killing people if you promote that. You are irresponsible. The president doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

“Hydroxychloroquine? This is dangerous! Dr. Fauci says X, Y, and Z. The Scarf Queen says X, Y, and Z. It hasn’t undergone clinical trials.” Yes, it has. You can’t talk about anything. We haven’t been able to. It is taboo to talk about anything that might calm people down. It has been taboo and unpermitted to talk about anything that might shed some actual truth on this.

It has been taboo and unpermitted to talk about anything that might convince the American people that we could reopen the U.S. economy now.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I have a whole bunch of more taboos that I will share with you as the program unfolds today before your very eyes and ears. But in other words, folks, any story that contradicts the narrative that Donald Trump is single handily responsible for this, that Donald Trump is the reason that we are all doomed, that the virus has destroyed us, that Trump has killed thousands and wrecked the economy, that’s their narrative. Anything that contradicts that, “No, no, no, no, no, you’re a kook. No, no, no, that’s taboo. That’s so insane. That’s so infantile. You’re just an idiot.”

That’s how they come after you if you effectively blow up any of their narratives. And let’s be honest. These taboos have worked. They have silenced some people. There are a lot of researchers with a lot of research papers and a lot of think tanks who are afraid to publish. I wish I could tell you where and who, but they’re afraid of even that. There are people who from the get-go published countertheories to what we were hearing, and they’ve turned out to be right, the number of deaths, the number of infections, the need to shut down the economy, they’ve been right on all of it.

They’ve been afraid to publish. These are PhD think tank thinkers. They are at conservative think tanks. They’ve been afraid to publish. That’s how effective the narrative, “That’s taboo. You can’t say that. You’re a cook. We’ll strip your funding.” That’s a testament to how effective it’s been.