President Donald Trump dared to argue that his response to the coronavirus is better than former President Barack Obama’s response to the H1N1 virus back in 2009, only to get ripped to shreds on Twitter.
More than 80,000 Americans are dead because of the coronavirus and the economy is in shambles as tens of millions are out of work and the unemployment rate has hit over 14 percent. And it’s all set to become much worse as the country re-opens earlier than health experts recommend, which will likely trigger a second wave of the virus and further economic damage.
But Trump somehow still thinks his response to the pandemic is better than how Obama handled the H1N1 flu.
We are getting great marks for the handling of the CoronaVirus pandemic, especially the very early BAN of people from China, the infectious source, entering the USA. Compare that to the Obama/Sleepy Joe disaster known as H1N1 Swine Flu. Poor marks, bad polls – didn’t have a clue!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2020
First of all, Trump is not getting “great marks” for his response. His recklessness and incompetence are why 80,000 Americans are dead and why the economy came to a halt according to many. Had he acted back in February after being warned multiple times about the virus, the United States would have been better off. But he played golf, held rallies, and downplayed the virus as a media-driven “hoax” instead of taking it seriously.
And he’s been f*cking up ever since, including his push to re-open early.
Trump’s “ban” also wasn’t a complete ban.
As for Obama’s handling of H1N1, only about 12,500 Americans died during that epidemic and the economy didn’t crash, something a doctor pointed out in response.
In fact, under Trump more than 12,500 Americans died from the coronavirus in a week. Also, the economy grew under President Obama during H1N1. Under Trump, more than 33 million Americans lost their jobs and unemployment is skyrocketing past 20%, the highest in American history.
— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) May 10, 2020
Other Twitter users also chimed in.
Obama learned from the mistakes of H1N1, he and his admin made a pandemic playbook which you tossed aside. If you hadn’t, less lives would have been lost and economy wouldn’t have suffered, you @realDonaldTrump fucked up bigly.
— David Weissman (@davidmweissman) May 10, 2020
“great marks” from who? name one doctor or virologist or epistemologist or any other expert who is giving you “great marks.” Fox News and the wingnut outrage-industrial complex that exists to pacify you don’t count. bro you are completely off the rails this morning. woo woo woooo
— Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) May 10, 2020
For Trump, the pandemic response of a 3 months old administration resulting in 12,469 deaths over 12 months is a “big failure”, while his own administration’s response to a pandemic after more than 3 years in office resulting in 80,000 deaths in two months is “perfect”.
— Morten Øverbye (@morten) May 10, 2020
If President Obama had lost 80,000 lives in 2 months, with no signs of slowing down, he wouldn’t have been crowing about it.
You really have NO CLUE, Spanky.
— BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) May 10, 2020
Every time Trump tries to compare the current crisis to H1N1, we are reminded that we once had a leader who actually did their job and cared about American lives.
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