PolitiFact's big fat Corona Lie

PolitiFact continues to spread Fake News like a virus. It's latest lie is a cover-up for Obama's handling of the H1N1 flu in 2009.

The Fake News site reported that it was a lie to say Obama waited until 1,000 people died before declaring H1N1 a national emergency.

It took me 15 seconds to prove PolitiFact wrong.

CNN reported on October 26, 2009, "President Obama has declared a national emergency to deal with the rapid increase in illness from the H1N1 influenza virus."

The story also said, "Since the H1N1 flu pandemic began in April, millions of people in the United States have been infected, at least 20,000 have been hospitalized and more than 1,000 have died, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

To be sure, there was a public health emergency declared in April 2009. But no borders were shut down, no cruise ships quarantined, and no restrictions placed on travel. These are all actions that President Donald John Trump took before anyone died in the USA.

Indeed, he put travel restrictions on Red China before any cases were reported here. This was no guarantee against the virus spreading here, but it certainly slowed the spread. Experts say it likely was already here and spreading undetected.

If PolitiFact were unbiased, it would go after false Democrat claims about President Donald John Trump's handling of this emergency.

Let's face it, the media regards President Donald John Trump as a national emergency. When all your sources are Democrats, you must please them.

Dan Diamond of Politico wrote, "Trump's mismanagement helped fuel corona virus crisis. Current and former administration officials blame the president for creating a no-bad-news atmosphere that stifled attempts to combat the outbreak."

Why wait for something to go wrong to blame President Trump?

So Diamond wrote, "Interviews with 13 current and former officials, as well as individuals close to the White House, painted a picture of a president who rewards those underlings who tell him what he wants to hear while shunning those who deliver bad news. For instance, aides heaped praise on Trump for his efforts to lock down travel from China — appealing to the president’s comfort zone of border security — but failed to convey the importance of doing simultaneous community testing, which could have uncovered a potential U.S. outbreak. Government officials and independent scientists now fear that the corona virus has been silently spreading in the United States for weeks, as unexplained cases have popped up in more than 25 states."

H1N1 hit 46 states before Obama declared a national emergency. President Donald John Trump took ownership of the problem from the get-go. I expect in 6 months, the panic will subside as Corona Virus proves to be deadly but not an existential threat to humanity.

In a looking back at H1N1, the CDC said, "From April 12, 2009 to April 10, 2010, CDC estimated there were 60.8 million cases (range: 43.3-89.3 million), 274,304 hospitalizations (range: 195,086-402,719), and 12,469 deaths (range: 8868-18,306) in the United States due to the (H1N1)pdm09 virus."

My guess is the Corona Virus will put up similar numbers. Or not.

I don't recall the stock market paying much attention to H1N1, nor should it have. We had real problems then. A rookie president inexperienced in management had inherited a collapsed economy that he tried to stimulate with a star-crossed $787 billion stimulus. He said it would create 4 million jobs. Unemployment rose to 10%-plus instead.

So how prepared is the United States to handle this emergency?

The experts rate the CDC' response to the corona virus as the best in all the world.

US spends more per capita on health care than any other.

This results in having more capacity to handle a pandemic.

Not that I support a "ACA reformed/even more expensive" system (why not allow competition?) but those arguing Socialism would yield more capacity can't count. https://t.co/71gYiFRyKE

— Cody Penn-Dent 🍊♂️📛 (@codypd) March 8, 2020

We have the most expensive government in the world.

Occasionally, it is worth it.

We also have the most expensive medical system in the world. It is always worth it. Our hospital bed occupancy rate is 65.9%.

In America, hospital bed waits for you!

We shall see how the Corona Virus plays out. But one thing is sure: PolitiFact will continue to lie about the president.