On Thursday, Donald Trump's presidential re-election campaign released a statement accusing Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden of "causing panic" during the 2009 swine flu outbreak, following Biden's speech addressing the current outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
"In the past, Joe Biden has shown terrible judgment and incompetence in the face of public health issues. The Obama White House had to publicly apologize for and clean up after Biden when his irresponsible remarks caused panic during the swine flu outbreak in 2009," the statement from Trump's campaign reads.
The Obama WH had to apologize for Joe Biden's reckless swine flu remarks in 2009. He opposed @realDonaldTrump's China travel restrictions, which helped impede the spread of coronavirus. America needs leadership & Biden has shown none.
— Tim Murtaugh (@TimMurtaugh) March 12, 2020
POTUS has the U.S. on strong footing. pic.twitter.com/ZlMA22TovJ
The campaign issued the statement shortly after Biden criticized the Trump administration's handling of the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S.
"The administration's failure on testing is colossal and it's a failure of leadership, planning and execution," Biden said during a speech in Wilmington, Delaware. "This virus laid bare the severe shortcomings of the current administration."
Biden also criticized the Trump administration for the recent travel ban, which restricts travel for foreign nationals that have visited 26 European countries, not including the United Kingdom and Ireland. Biden argued that "banning all travel from Europe or any part of the world may slow" COVID-19, "but it will not stop it."
"Downplaying it, being overly dismissive or spreading disinformation will only hurt us and further advantage the spread of the disease. But neither should we panic or fall back on xenophobia. Labeling COVID-19 a 'foreign virus' doesn't displace accountability for the misjudgments that have been taken so far by the Trump administration," Biden added.
The statement from Trump's campaign references remarks Biden made in 2009 on NBC's Today while serving as Vice President under then-President Barack Obama. At the time, the U.S. was experiencing the outbreak of H1N1, more commonly known as swine flu.
"I would tell members of my family—and I have—I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now," Biden said at the time. "It's not that it's going to Mexico. It's [that] you're in a confined aircraft. When one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft."
Following his remarks, former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, who served in Obama's administration, released a statement clarifying Biden's comment.
"Obviously, if anybody was unduly alarmed for whatever reason, we would apologize for that. And I hope that my remarks and remarks of people at [the Centers for Disease Control] and Secretary [Janet] Napolitano have appropriately cleared up what he meant to say," Gibbs said during a White House briefing.
As cases of COVID-19 increase across the U.S., many have looked at the 2009 swine flu outbreak and the way Obama's administration handled it and compared those actions to what the Trump administration is doing.
According to data estimated by the CDC, from 2009 to 2010, there were over 60 million cases of the swine flu in the U.S. and over 12,000 deaths. The Obama administration declared the swine flu a public health emergency on April 26, 2009, when there were just 20 confirmed cases in the U.S.
In comparison, according to data provided by Johns Hopkins University, there are currently over 1,300 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the U.S. and at least 31 deaths. The Trump administration declared the coronavirus a public health emergency on January 31, 2020, when there were seven confirmed cases and no deaths.
Newsweek reached out to Biden's office for comment but did not get a response in time for publication.
About the writer
Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more