Trump Inaccurately Compares Flu to Coronavirus on Twitter and Facebook.
Written by SOURCE on October 6, 2020
Amid his publicity stunt-laden COVID-19 experience, Donald Trump—the constant coverage of whom surely benefits no one—is once again pushing false narratives about the virus that’s taken the lives of more than 209,000 Americans.
In messages shared to his Twitter and Facebook pages on Tuesday, the frequent pandemic downplayer recklessly compared the coronavirus to the seasonal flu.
“Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu,” the failed steak salesman said. “Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!”
Twitter has since added a “potentially harmful information” label to the tweet. Facebook, per comments given to CNN by a rep, removed the post due to it having broken its rules on spreading virus-related misinformation.
“This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19,” the Twitter warning message, now attached to Trump’s tweet, states. “However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”
Frustratingly, inaccurate comparisons between the flu and the coronavirus have been made since the pandemic first began here in the States. As Politico and plenty of others have since pointed out, Trump’s claim of 100,000 people dying from the flu is—to the surprise of no one—false. An estimated 61,000 died during the 2017-2018 flu season, with the typical yearly average of deaths over the past decade falling well below that at less than 36,000.
By comparison, as stated above, there have been more than 209,000 confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. alone since the pandemic started.
Sadly, all of this is to be expected from a guy whose presidential pandemic plan basically boils down to uniform inaction and a palpable disregard for the lives of the people he’s meant to be serving.
