>>>>>>He did not make it substantially worse. The articles have misrepresented the time period.
>>>>
>>>>There's plenty of misrepresentation to go around. Some like to report this time line wrt Swine flu:
>>>>
>>>>24 March 2009: first case detected in USA
>>>>22 April 2009: CDC opens its emergency response center
>>>>25 April 2009: WHO declares international public health emergency
>>>>25 June 2009: CDC estimated over 1 million cases in the US
>>>>...
>>>>October 24 2009: POTUS declares a national emergency.
>>>>
>>>>The intent to to contrast with Trump's quick reaction to COVID-19.
>>>
>>>I have quoted that timeline in this thread but my intent was never to contrast Trump v Obama but rather to compare the complete hysteria the whole damn planet
>>> was going through based entirely on faulty data, wild speculation and news hype.
>>>I doubt that the world will end from the flu - anyway we only have about 10 years from whatever year in the future you name before global warming will kill us all.
>>>Question of the day:
>>>Will evil global warming be the thing that stops the spread of COVID-19?
>>
>>The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 infected 1 out of 3 people and killed 50 million people so don't think it can't be deadly. ICOVID-19 spreads exponentially, so it needs to be contained quickly --- otherwise you run out of resources to battle it, then you got a real serious problem.
>
>I'm old but not that old. I remember when I was growing up in Jacksonville that there were 2 large sand mounds exactly where they built the Gateway Shopping Center
>in the late '50s on Norwood Ave. between 44th St (which didn't exist then) and the railroad tracks, We went to that area to hunt for Indian relics but mostly found skeletons from the mass graves filled with victims of the Spanish flu epidemic.

People in my family tend to live quite a long time, lot of them into their 90's and a few into their 100's. I remember hearing my great-grandparents talk about the flu epidemic when I was a kid.

>>>>However - this timeline leaves out Obama's declaration of a public health emergency on 26 April. Few in the public understand the difference between a public health emergency and a national emergency, which allows dissemblers on both sides to misrepresent at will.
>>>>
>>>>What is certain is that within 3 months, swine flu was a pandemic affecting millions of US residents and killing thousands. Is COVID-19 going to repeat this? Those currently criticizing Trump ought to be careful lest their posturing is let down by this virus seeming to be less deadly or better contained or however you want to characterize it. Plenty of electioneering opportunity for Trump if the disease fails to hurt the citizenry enough.