Last night during the debate, the Vice President challenged Kamala Harris on how the Obama/Biden team handled their pandemic. Wait - what? There was no pandemic during the Obama years! We should know, as most of us were around back then! According to the media, this pandemic (Covid - 19), this world ender, is the first since the Spanish Flu. Actually, the Vice President was correct. We did have a pandemic from 2009 to 2010. It was called the Swine Flu.
Yes, but the Swine Flu was NOTHING compared to Covid - 19, right? No - it was worse. Get ready for this one - by the time it was over, it infected up to 20% of the world's population. 60,000,000 people in this country caught it. To date with Covid - 19, about 7,500,000 people in this country have become infected.
Pence had a good point. If the Swine Flu was as contagious and deadly as Covid - 19, how would have Obama/Biden have handled it? As it was, most folks have no clue we were even in a pandemic. Baseball and football went on, church services went on, normal work place activities went on, normal school went on, and no masks were mandated. And yet, the Swine Flu infected 20% of our population.
In 2004, during the Bush (43) Administration, the Bird Flu was the big threat. It was so scary, the WHO estimated it could turn into a pandemic and sicken 1/3 of the population in the United States. Besides the name of this disease, does anyone remember masking up, or taking other precautions? No. Even though the Bird Flu is still around, it has mutated into something much less harmful or scary.
What is my point? Bush (43) was lucky the Bird Flu was not much, much worse. Obama was lucky the Swine Flu was not much, much worse. Once again, Obama was lucky that MERS in 2014 was not much, much worse. Under Trump, we have Covid - 19. The death toll in the short period of time we have had it on our shores, is somewhere between 10,000 and 210,000 - depending if you count the comorbidity deaths.
How Covid - 19 became an election issue is beyond me. Vice President Pence was correct to call Harris out on this point. The Swine Flu could have been much worse, and Obama/Biden might have really mucked it up. Biden has been very critical of Trump for not wearing a mask more often. Guess what? Most honest virologists tell us most masks are useless. Biden said we need to follow the science more. Okay Joe - here is the science. Unless everyone is wearing a N-95 or N-100 mask, other masks are of limited value. That is the science - now COME ON, MAN!
This pandemic has spawned enough panic porn to last for decades. Most believe this pandemic will be over in 2021. I am one of those people. My fear is how long the panic porn will last once this disease is tamed down. Panic porn has us living like hermits. And Americans do not do well, living like hermits.
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