Liberty University, which was attacked repeatedly by media after it continued to allow students on campus amid the pandemic, has announced at the end of its academic year it had zero confirmed coronavirus cases on campus.
Its president, Jerry Falwell Jr., says the university is a model of how things should be done, reported Paul Bedard in his Washington Secrets column in the Washington Examiner.
He noted there were "some 750 media reports that Liberty University was writing COVID-19 death sentences for some 1,100 students returning after spring break," but there actually were "no cases with students on campus."
After the students left for home, Falwell said, 'We finished this year strong — maybe even stronger than ever before because of the hard work of our administration, faculty, staff, and students who pushed through the challenges that this pandemic caused and never quit safely serving our students."
He said Liberty created a model that others should follow by protecting students, faculty and staff.
No one who lived in a campus residence hall or who worked in a campus office tested positive, he said.
The column included a chart showing how other universities of similar size, including UCLA and Arizona State, have not reported how many cases developed among students. All of them were in full compliance with health recommendations.
But only Liberty was targeted by the media with negative reports, the column pointed out, totaling many hundreds.
Falwell, in the column, said it "shows how one-sided the American media has become, that they sound the alarm on the false narrative that there are COVID-19 cases at Liberty, and then when they find out that there were none, total silence."
He said many of the school's students returned to campus because they had elderly parents they were protecting. Some were international students and others didn't have web access at home.
The state health department conducted two surprise inspections and found everything in order and in compliance with Gov. Ralph Northam's orders, the report said.
Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, reopened the school's campus last week. By Friday, nearly a dozen Liberty students were sick with symptoms that suggest Covid-19. https://t.co/dmgBQ27pdZ
— NYT Politics (@nytpolitics) March 29, 2020
The New York Times said: "Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, reopened the school's campus last week. By Friday, nearly a dozen Liberty students were sick with symptoms that suggest Covid-19."
Only it wasn't so.
Another illustration of why the lying @nytimes and other mainstream #FakeNews publications are failing financially and have lost the public’s trust. ZERO COVID cases on campus @LibertyU and the campus just closed for the semester @NYTLiz ! https://t.co/bY8oXqKsl4
— Jerry Falwell (@JerryFalwellJr) May 7, 2020
Falwell already has announced plans to sue the Times and ProPublica over their reports.
"Enough is enough," he said.