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In 2009, then-businessman Trump said, “I think it’s fine. It’s the flu. It’s the flu,” noting that mankind has had epidemics and flus before.
“It’s going to be handled. It’s going to come. It’s going to be bad. And maybe it will be worse than the normal flu seasons. And it’s going to go away. I think it is being handled fine. I think the words are right.”
“But, you know, you’re letting people in from countries that have bigger doses of it, and everybody’s coming into the country, and the Mexicans aren’t stopped and nobody’s stopped,” before immediately noting, “I’m not saying they should be stopped.”
“It’s called the flu. Have you had the flu many times, Neil (Cavuto)? Probably. You know, we all have.”
The remarks are similar to ones he would make as president 11 years later about the coronavirus, in which he downplayed the virus by comparing its death toll to the flu. Weeks later, Trump pivoted to say that the coronavirus was “not the flu. It’s vicious.”
A CNN KFile review of transcripts of Trump’s media appearances on television and radio, at public events and in his Twitter feed found no other examples of Trump mentioning the H1N1 outbreak until this year. The President was a frequent critic of then-President Barack Obama throughout most of his tenure in office.
Amid the handling of his administration’s own public health crisis, Trump has tried to deflect blame by pointing to the Obama administration’s H1N1 flu response, particularly attacking former Vice President Joe Biden, his presumptive 2020 presidential election opponent.
In the 2009 Fox News interview, Trump also cautioned against overreacting to the virus and said that “vaccines can be very dangerous.”
“We pushed vaccines on people that killed a lot of people, paralyzed a lot of people. Do we risk doing the same now?” asked Cavuto.
He added, “This is the flu. And it’s a bad flu season perhaps, although it hasn’t even started yet. But it’s a bad flu season, perhaps. And maybe it won’t be. But I do think we shouldn’t be over-reacting.”
Cavuto then asked Trump, “So if one of your kids should say, I’m feeling a little sick, I need to take a day off from school, you’re not going to let them?”
Trump responded, “Well, I’d let them, absolutely. If they’re not feeling well, I would certainly let them. But I don’t think I’d inject them with all sorts of vaccines that really nobody right now knows if it works with respect to what they’re, what they’re looking at right now, Neil.”
In a statement, White House spokesman Judd Deere said, “President Trump’s highest priority has been the health and safety of the American people, which is why he has encouraged the use of vaccines and told parents and guardians to get their children vaccinated. Any new vaccine must be thoroughly tested to ensure it is effective, and that is why Operation Warp Speed is being led by expert scientists focused on safety and saving lives.”
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