Joe Biden has been very critical of President Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He has said, “Do you really feel safer under Donald Trump? COVID has taken this year, just since the outbreak, has taken more than 100 years. Look, the lives, when you think about it, more lives this year than any other year for the past 100 years. More than 180,000 lives in just six months, an average of 1,000 people dying every day in the month of August.”
So, do you ever wonder how Biden would have fared under similar circumstances? Actually, you don’t have to wonder, we know.
In 2009, the country got hit by another pandemic called H1N1. “Biden took point on the White House’s response to the outbreak, multiple administration officials told Politico.” According to the CDC’s mid range estimates, 61 million people in the United States were infected and 12,470 died.
Kimberley Strassel’s enlightening article in the Wall Street Journal reveals the facts on how the Obama/Biden administration faced that pandemic.
While “other countries started shutting facilities, telling citizens to stay home, quarantining visitors,” Obama/Biden did none of those things and “took a resigned approach to its spread.” Borders were not closed, quarantine of the healthy was not mandated, businesses were not shuttered.
But protocols were put into place. According to CDC guidelines then, “These recommended actions are:
Wash hands frequently with soap and water. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand rub*
Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing.
Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth
People who are sick with an influenza-like illness (ILI) (fever plus at least cough or sore throat and possibly other symptoms like runny nose, body aches, headaches, chills, fatigue, vomiting and diarrhea) should stay home and keep away from others as much as possible, including avoiding travel, for at least 24 hours after fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities. (Fever should be gone without the use of fever-reducing medicine).
Avoid close contact (i.e. being within about 6 feet) with persons with ILI.
Sound familiar?
However, “In community and home settings, the use of face masks and respirators generally are not recommended.”
How about a vaccine for N1H1?
“In early 2009, a new H1N1 influenza virus — also known as the “swine flu” — emerged in Mexico, with the World Health Organization declaring the outbreak a pandemic in mid-June.
“By late April of that year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had already started working on a vaccine. The government promised that 120 to 160 million doses of H1N1 vaccine would be available by October to head off an expected second wave of infections.
“But when October arrived, only about 23 million doses were available to states, with fewer than 17 million doses shipped that month, according to a report to Congress on the government’s pandemic response.
“Dr. Rebecca Wurtz, an infectious disease physician and population health informaticist in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, said the government also did a poor job of communicating where the vaccine would be available and who should be first in line to get it.
“‘The vaccine wasn’t always available when people needed it or where they needed it,’ she said.
“These problems led to a drop in public confidence.”
“A Gallup survey from early November 2009 found that 54 percent of adults said the federal government was doing a poor or very poor job of providing the country with an adequate supply of the H1N1 vaccine.” Healthline, 8/10/2020.
The only good news was that “H1N1 turned out to be less deadly than had been feared.” Had the mortality rate been the same rate as for COVID-19, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center, 1,830,000 people would have died.
In a rare moment of candor, “Former Biden chief of staff Ron Klain said at Texas A&M in 2019: ‘We did every possible thing wrong. Sixty million Americans got H1N1 in that period of time, and it is just purely a fortuity that this isn’t one of the great mass-casualty events in American history. [It] had nothing to do with us doing anything right; just had to do with luck. If anyone thinks that can’t happen again, they don’t have to go back to 1918. Just go back to 2009, 2010. Imagine a virus with a different lethality, and you can just do the math.’”
Dealing with the unknown is difficult. Joe Biden showed us just how difficult in 2009 and he should be much more tempered and balanced in his comments about the Trump administration response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
What is the real record of Trump’s actions on COVID-19?
“Testifying before Congress on Friday (7/31/2020), Dr. Anthony Fauci repeatedly credited President Trump for coronavirus policy decisions that saved lives.
“Those measures included Trump’s decisions to ban flights from China, the UK and the rest of Europe, and the administration’s “Fifteen Days to Slow the Spread” quarantine policy, initially ordered in mid-March and then extended to a total 30 days.
“Appearing before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Response, Fauci said he participated in, and approved of, all of those policies — and that he believes they all resulted in the saving of lives.”
Steve Carns is a former executive with IBM Corporation and a twenty-five year resident of Talbot County. He lives in the town of Easton.
Tom Hill says
Thank you, Steve. It is good to get a balanced point of view backed up with historic references.
Paul B says
Whoops, United airlines and delta banned flights well before 45 took action. Facts matter.
Stephen Schaare says
Mr. Carns, Where have you been? The SPY editor pledged more balance! Here you are! Nice work.
Jeff Staley says
I have no problem giving Trump credit when he does something right. I just wish he had done it more often and avoided saying and doing so many more things wrong. He has no qualifications for the one of the most important jobs in America, but we elected him anyway. We are living or dying with the consequences. I would suggest it is time to correct our mistake.
Anne Stalfort says
The Washington Post gave Trump 4 pinocchios for Trump’s claim that the Obama administration did not handle the 2009 H1N1 flu outbreak well. In fact the head of preventative diseases from Vanderbilt said that the Obama administration got at least a B+ for its handling of the flu outbreak. Unlike Trump, Obama declared a national health emergency after 20 cases and no deaths.