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Topline
As the U.S. simultaneously nears 215,000 U.S. coronavirus deaths and election day, President Donald Trump has adopted a strategy of trying to shift focus away from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and onto a past virus outbreak: the 2009 swine flu pandemic, which killed an estimated 12,500 Americans.
WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 05: U.S. President Donald Trump gestures upon return to the White House … [+]
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Key Facts
“It was one of the great disasters,” Trump said on Thursday of the outbreak, which happened under Obama and Trump’s current opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden.
This comes after Vice President Mike Pence took aim at Biden during the vice presidential debate for the Obama administration’s handling of the swine flu pandemic, which infected more than 60 million Americans, with Trump tweeting that Biden “didn’t have a clue” on swine flu.
Republicans have often pointed to one-time Biden aide Ron Klain saying the Obama administration “did everything possible wrong” and that it was “purely a fortuity” the swine flu pandemic wasn’t “one of the great mass casualty events in American history,” though he later clarified he was talking specifically about vaccine production.
Nonetheless, Trump has sought to use Biden’s handling of that pandemic – which was touted in Obama’s endorsement of Biden in April – against him, arguing that if Biden were in charge during coronavirus, “perhaps 2.2 million people would have died.”
But Trump’s comments do little to address long-standing and ongoing concerns over his own handling of the virus as the RealClearPolitics average gives him just a 42% approval rating and a 57% disapproval rating on coronavirus with less than a month until the election.
Biden is also viewed far more favorably on the virus, with 56% of likely voters in a CNBC poll released Monday saying they think Biden would do a better job on the virus, compared to just 44% who said Trump would do better.
Key Background
Like coronavirus, swine flu was a respiratory illness that came in from China, though it had just a 0.02% case fatality rate in the U.S., far lower than the 2.8% fatality rate of U.S. coronavirus cases. Asymptomatic infection also allowed coronavirus to spread far more easily. Biden’s role in the Obama administration’s response – which mainly focused on reassuring the American people – was as a liaison to Congress and governors, securing funds for the response, according to Politico. However, Politico reported that Biden’s messaging on the virus was seen as overly alarmist by his colleagues, who pulled him out of the public spotlight and walked back his warnings.
Surprising Fact
Trump actually praised the Obama administration’s swine flu response contemporaneously. In a 2009 Fox News appearance, unearthed by CNN, Trump said of the administration’s response to the outbreak, “I think it is being handled fine. I think the words are right.”
Big Number
26%. That’s the share of likely voters who said a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday that the most important factor in deciding their candidate is having “a robust plan to help the nation recover from the impact of coronavirus/COVID-19.” That’s compared to 21% who said “ability to restore trust in government” and 19% who said “strong on the economy.”
Chief Critic
“We’re eight months into this pandemic and Donald Trump and Mike Pence still have no plan to deal with COVID-19. He’s still hoping it will just ‘disappear,’” Biden tweeted during the vice presidential debate. “Kamala Harris and I have a comprehensive, science-backed plan to defeat this virus.”
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