FLASHBACK: Biden's chief of staff pick admits Obama admin did everything wrong with H1N1
By: Brittany De Lea (Fox News)
The Obama administration simply dodged a bullet during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. The H1N1 pandemic wasn't controlled; it simply went away. Dr. Anthony Fauci was providing the same advice during the H1N1 pandemic that he is providing today during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
The experts provided the same advice to President Obama that they have been providing President Trump. President Obama was lucky in 2009; President Trump was not lucky in 2019. And the expert advice had very little to do with either outcome.
Joe Biden has experience with a failure but was lucky. But this time Joe Biden's luck has run out. Repeating the failures of the H1N1 pandemic won't provide a different outcome.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
President-elect Joe Biden named Ron Klain as his White House chief of staff on Wednesday - and the longtime Biden aide, who worked as an Obama administration Ebola response coordinator, is on record saying the previous administration handled the H1N1 outbreak poorly.
In a Pandemic and Biosecurity Policy Summit hosted in May, 2019, Klain - who was not involved directly in the H1N1 response but was a White House staffer at the time - said "a bunch of really talented" people were working on it, but "did every possible thing wrong."
"Sixty million Americans got H1N1 in that period of time and it's just purely a fortuity that this isn't one of the great mass casualty events in American history," Klain said. "It had nothing to do with us doing anything right, it just had to do with luck."
Klain was warning about the possibility that future epidemic outbreaks could have more devastating effects.
The H1N1 influenza virus broke out in the U.S. in 2009 and resulted in about 274,304 hospitalizations and 12,469 deaths, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is believed that people aged 60 and over had antibodies from a previous flu strain - though younger individuals did not.
A Biden spokesperson did not return Fox News' request for comment on Klain's remarks.
The comments come as coronavirus cases throughout the U.S. are on the rise. Biden and other Democrats have largely laid blame on the Trump administration for perceived failures in handling the outbreak - which the president has staunchly defended himself against.
The president-elect has repeatedly pointed to the Obama administration's dealings with the H1N1 Swine Flu as assurance that he is better equipped to deal with a widespread virus outbreak.
In a statement on Biden's website, it says that he "knows how to mount an effective crisis response and elevate the voices of scientists, public health experts, and first responders."
"He helped lead the Obama-Biden Administration's effective response to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic and the 2014 Ebola epidemic," the statement reads.
Regarding the Ebola response, which occurred around 2014, Klain said at an event earlier this year that some "wrong choices" were also made, but added that a logistical framework had been put in place to make the problem solving process easier and more transparent.
Biden has already began assembling a bipartisan taskforce to get to work on strategies to combat the pandemic, which is expected to worsen over the winter months.
Governors throughout many states - including New York and Ohio - announced new restrictions on residents and businesses on Wednesday in attempt to get ahead of the expected surge.
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Joe Biden is depending on expert advice that failed in 2009 and, now, in 2020. But this time Joe Biden's luck has run out.
Thank you, China.
FUCK CHINA!
And screw any apologists who supports that repressive and evil regime
"Sixty million Americans got H1N1 in that period of time and it's just purely a fortuity that this isn't one of the great mass casualty events in American history," Klain said. "It had nothing to do with us doing anything right, it just had to do with luck."
Oh. Brother.
The newly appointed Biden Chief of Staff was being humble. It was just difficult for you to recognize it considering what's been going on in the White House the last 4 years.
So you're say he's lying?
What I said couldn't be more clear: The newly appointed Biden Chief of Staff was being humble.
Trump has spent his entire tenure as POTUS taking credit for things when in reality, he had nothing to do with them. Humbleness and humility are positive character traits that Donald Trump has never expressed or experienced.
No, Ron Klain was not lying; Klain was brutally honest. That's an honest mistake Klain won't repeat as Joe Biden's chief of staff.
Yeah, failure seems to bring out the humility of the left. (That's sarcasm, in case you didn't recognize it.)
You know, people didn't ignore the eight years before the last four. Maybe that explains the last four years.
I remember being very worried about H1N1, but not for myself, my husband, or my daughter, but rather I was worried about my [at the time] infant son. He hadn't built up immunities to anything really yet... other than with his vaccinations that is and that was the very first [and ONLY] time I'd ever gotten him a "flu" [H1N1] shot. Our sitter and her family all came down with it and her youngest ended up in the hospital because of it.