Trump: 12,000 H1N1 Deaths Worse Than 80,000 COVID-19 Deaths (And Counting)

President Trump is trying to tell us 2+2=5 when he tweeted about the 2009-2010 H1N1 pandemic: this morning:

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!

Perhaps Trump is getting great reviews from the Alex Joneses of the world or from his imaginary friends. His China travel ban applied only to foreign nationals and didn't stop the entry of 40,000 Americans and others authorized to enter the United States. Fat lot of good that did.

But since Trump insists we compare his response to COVID-19 to the Obama Administration's response to the H1N1 Swine Flu pandemic of 2009-2010, a response he considers a disaster, let us grant him his wish.

The H1N1 Swine Flu pandemic of 2009-2010 resulted in the deaths of 12,469 Americans.

As of this writing, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the deaths of 80,308 Americans (and counting).

Here is the key thing to remember when comparing H1N1 Swine Flu deaths and COVID-19 deaths in the United States. Those 12,469 deaths occurred within a year. These 80,308 deaths have occurred within three months. 

Let me put it another way. COVID-19 has killed nearly 7 times as many Americans as the H1N1 Swine Flu did and did so in a quarter of the time. 

Mind you I was not a fan of the Obama Administration (and still am not) and I was in my early days as a contributor to The American Spectator at the time of the H1N1 Swine Flu. There were plenty of complaints circa about the Obama Administration circa 2009-2010 where it regarded the Stimulus Bill, Obamacare and his Middle East apology tour and not without justification. But I can also tell you there was little, if any complaint regarding the Obama Administration's response to the H1N1 pandemic from The American Spectator or conservative media outlets at large. As for Donald Trump, he was more concerned about Obama's birth certificate than what he and Joe Biden were doing about Swine Flu nor do I recall Trump lifting a finger to help those affected by Swine Flu. That and the Obama Administration left Trump and company with a pandemic playbook which gathered dust on the proverbial shelf. 

The bottom line is if President Trump wants to compare his response to COVID-19 to Obama and Biden's response to H1N1 Swine Flu then he is playing a losing hand. In which case, Trump would be wise to fold. But wisdom is not a quality with which I associate with President Trump. So by all means let him continue to compare his response with Obama and Biden's as the COVID-19 death toll in America will soon reach six figures.