President Trump and his administration’s swift action to declare a health emergency and temporarily bar flights from China likely played a role in preventing the spread of the coronavirus in the U.S., a top Republican lawmaker told the “Todd Starnes Show” on Wednesday.
Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., said there is much to learn about the deadly virus that, at this point, would be best compared to the H1N1 virus that was found in the U.S. back in 2009 during the Obama administration.
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“At this point in time, if you compare three months afterward then and three months now, we’re seeing a lot more—what they call—‘case-fatality rates’ with this virus, COVID-19, than H1N1,” Murphy, a medical doctor, said. “On the other hand, there were a lot more cases of H1N1 at that time that had affected the U.S. Some of that, I think, has to do with the president’s order to close the flights from China very soon and enact emergency measures, really, long before the Obama administration in 2009.”
More than 1,000 died in the U.S. from H1N1, or the swine flu, when Obama declared a national emergency on Oct. 23, 2009, the Associated Press reported. The report said that the first death recorded in the U.S. was in April 2009. The AP reported that by time of the Obama declaration, flu activity was already reported in 46 states, the report said.
A public health emergency allows the federal government to use additional resources to help fight any health crisis.
Murphy said Democrats are trying to score political points by using the coronavirus as an example of the Trump administration’s ineptitude.
“Unfortunately in this day and time, the Democratic leaders, you know, and their other minions, wanted to politicize this. They didn’t win on obstruction, collusion or impeachment so they’re trying to turn this into a political issue, which it is not. It’s an American issue.”