You knew it would happen. Trump’s incompetent response to the COVID-19 outbreak is one of the few crises in the last three years that is not of his own making, and his sycophants have come to realize that he can’t lie or tweet his way out of this one. The response? Gen up the Noise Machine, WhatAbout Version. One of the loudest blowhards in the Machine is PJ Media formerly called Pajamas Media, one of the biggest manure shovelers on the web.
The WhatAbout target this time? Barack Obama, of course, and this time it was his response to the H1N1 flu outbreak in 2009, days after he had taken office. H1N1 became apparent in January 2009 and being researched by the WHO then. The first case of H1N1 was discovered on April 15, 2009, the WHO declared a medical emergency on April 25, and the CDC began releasing anti-viral drugs to fight the disease. Obama declared a US medical emergency on April 30. He requested $1.9 billion then and as the pandemic grew, requested another $9 billion for response and vaccines. In October of 2009 Obama did declare a national emergency, but only after multiple efforts to control the virus. Today, H1N1 continues as a recurring flu virus and has killed an estimated 75,000 Americans since 2009. It’s part of the annual flu vaccine today that many Americans still refuse to receive.
Let’s talk about how Republicans responded to the virus back in 2009 versus what they are saying now. During the funding debates of 2009, Republicans opposed Obama’s request because, well, they’re Republicans. Also, the noise machine cranked up led by Gleen Beck, Lou Dobbs, and Rush Limbaugh. Glenn Beck, who at that time had a big show on Fox Noise said, “…you don’t know if this is going to cause neurological damage like it did in the 1970s,” adding that he would do “the exact opposite” of what the federal government recommended and might even attend a swine flu party to deliberately infect himself before the virus could mutate. Rush Limbaugh said, “I am not going to take it [the H1N1 vaccine], precisely because you are now telling me I must. . . . I don’t want to take your vaccine. I don’t get flu shots.” He added that if “you have some idiot government official demanding, telling me I must take this vaccine, I’ll never take it.” In Congress Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) commented, “We can’t let all of our spending and our reaction be media-driven in responding to a panic so that we don’t get Katrina-ed. . . . It’s important because what we are talking about as we discuss the appropriateness of spending $2 billion to produce a vaccine that may never be used—that is a very important decision that our country has to make.” Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) added, “I don’t think we need to spend $1.5 billion on flu vaccine when . . . the research shows that it’s not going to be very virulent. . . . We are stealing our grandchildren’s future by borrowing and spending. . . . This hysteria over the flu is driving the media, and it’s driving the administration, driving the leadership here. We’ve got to stop that.”
The funding was passed, but after intense anti-vaxxer misinformation and loud Republican opposition, the distribution of the vaccine was greatly suppressed and even THAT was affected by party. Democrats outnumbered Republicans by almost 50% in saying they would take the vaccine.
The Repubs are singing the same song this time, too, calling the outbreak of COVID-19 a hoax and supporting Trump’s idiotic and incoherent blabbering and tweeting about it. Even as they try to cover for Trump, they’re attacking Obama for doing exactly the opposite of what he actually did.
Same song, different pandemic.