![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/APP-031220-Obama-Flu.jpg\")
<\/p>\nRUSH: I\u2019m always interested in people\u2019s reaction to this program. I think I have a lot of empathy, and I think one of the reasons why the relationship you and I have is good is \u2019cause I know how you hear this show. That, I think, is a key ingredient. It\u2019s called empathy. I know how you hear it.<\/p>\n
So, when I check emails and get questions from people, usually I\u2019m not surprised, and I\u2019m not surprised that I got beaucoup number of questions: “Rush, you don\u2019t sound panicked over any of this. The last two days, you don\u2019t sound panicked, and yet everybody\u2019s panicked. I\u2019m panicked,” people say in their email. “I\u2019m scared to death. I mean, I\u2019ve looked, the stock market was pulling up to 30,000. Now it\u2019s down to 21,000. The Democrat Party, every move they\u2019re making is designed to grow government, make government bigger, and you don\u2019t seem alarmed.”<\/p>\n
Folks, panic is… I don\u2019t know. I\u2019m not panicked. I am ticked off like you cannot believe, and I am really having a conversation with myself about how far to go in explaining why I\u2019m mad, \u2019cause I\u2019m mad about the politics of this. For example, let me give you some statistics. How many of you even remember the swine flu 2009, 2010? I don\u2019t remember it. I mean, I remember we had it. But I don\u2019t remember any panic about it. I don\u2019t remember a thing about the swine flu.<\/p>\n
I went back and looked at the stats and I was stunned. Are you ready for this? The swine flu outbreak in this country in 2009 and 2010, 60 million Americans were infected. Do you remember that? Sixty million were infected. Dr. Siegel, one of the Fox doctors was on TV explaining this last night. He was not my primary source for it, but he ended up confirming it. Sixty million people were infected.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Do you know how many people were hospitalized in 2009-2010 with the swine flu? Three hundred thousand were hospitalized. So 60 million people infected, 300,000 hospitalized. And nobody even remembers it. And why? Well, because we had a different president. We had a Democrat president by the name of Barack Obama, and the news then was how wonderfully well Obama was handling it, how expertly well Obama was dealing with it.<\/p>\n
There wasn\u2019t any media panic. The Republican Party did not politicize it at all. They made not one single effort that anybody can find or remember to try to make political hay out of it. It was treated as a health issue from top to bottom. Sixty million Americans infected, 300,000 hospitalized. I don\u2019t know what the death toll was. The numbers with the coronavirus are not even close. They are barely a fraction of a percentage compared to the swine flu.<\/p>\n
And then we also had Ebola. And I do remember a little bit more about Ebola, and once again, the Drive-By Media was praising the skills and the composure and the brilliance of Barack Obama in dealing with it. And I remember being kind of ticked off about that because there wasn\u2019t anything anybody can do about Ebola. Ebola is like any of these other viruses. There\u2019s nothing we can do to contain them.<\/p>\n
See, the reason I\u2019m not panicked is I don\u2019t have enough emotion left for panic \u2019cause I\u2019m too mad. I\u2019m too ticked off at this. We\u2019re watching the U.S. economy be wrecked here. There\u2019s some people enjoying it. And it makes me mad. There\u2019s some people\u2019s lives here that are being seriously damaged over this. And you know what\u2019s gonna happen? It\u2019s gonna end. We are going to overcome it. It\u2019s going to fizzle out like all of these do.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s some real positives if you want to find \u2019em here, and I, of course, have, and I\u2019ll share them with you in a minute. The point is we\u2019re gonna rebound from this, and when we do, you had better get ready and hold on tight, because this market\u2019s gonna rebound. The people who are selling right now and getting out of it are panicking, and they don\u2019t want to be selling. Everybody\u2019s doing this from a very defensive posture and point of view.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s adding… Like we get news that Tom Hanks and his wife have coronavirus. “Oh, no, it\u2019s all going (mewling)! It\u2019s over. Oh, my…” And then his kid — his kid, Chet — goes on TV, tries to calm everybody. “They\u2019re fine. They\u2019re in Australia. They\u2019re fine. They\u2019re not suffering at all. Everything\u2019s fine!” It doesn\u2019t matter. They\u2019ve got it.<\/p>\n Anyway, this is gonna end, and this market is gonna rebound like you can\u2019t believe because the people who have been selling off want to get back in it. And we are taking economic procedures right now that are going to serve to further reignite the economy when all this passes. And when we get back into the growth trajectory, some of the proposals the president\u2019s making regarding payroll taxes, Small Business Administration loans, even a tax holiday?<\/p>\n You just wait until people have no more emotion left to be panicked and get tired of this and want to go a different direction. And that day is gonna happen. The day\u2019s gonna come where people are gonna wake and say, “I\u2019m tired of living this way. I\u2019m fed up with being panicked every day. I\u2019m fed up,” and then — because of the actions the president\u2019s taken — we\u2019re not gonna have that many brand-new infections.<\/p>\n By shutting off this travel from Europe… As I said, this has really put the Democrats in a bad position \u2019cause they love the European Union. They love it, and the very fact that travel from their beloved European Union has been shut down… But let… If they come out and oppose this, then they\u2019re essentially coming out for open borders. This is actually… If you want to look at it politically, it\u2019s a good move from that standpoint.<\/p>\n But I\u2019m not panicking \u2019cause I\u2019m too mad about this.<\/p>\n This is… I don\u2019t know. (sigh) It\u2019s… I know some of you are saying, “Rush, easy for you to say.” It isn\u2019t easy for me to say, folks. Nobody\u2019s immune from what\u2019s happening here. I mean, you go back and you look at these swine flu numbers and you ask, “What was different? (chuckles) What was different was we had a Democrat in the White House and so the media didn\u2019t want to be critical of the government.<\/p>\n The media wanted to be promoting him. They wanted to be positive. They wanted to promote the brilliance of Barack Obama, the brilliant management skills, the temperament, the crease in his slacks, the intelligence and all that. Now we\u2019ve got just exact opposite.<\/p>\n BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n RUSH: Meanwhile, don\u2019t forget, \u2019cause I\u2019m sure everybody has, swine flu outbreak 2009, 2010, right here, United States of America, 60 million Americans infected. Do you remember any talk about running out of hospital beds? Were we gonna run out of IV saline solution? Were we gonna run out of masks? Sixty million Americans infected with the swine flu. Think pigs running everywhere if you have to, however you have to visualize this, 300,000 hospitalized.<\/p>\n We\u2019re nowhere near 300,000 hospitalized with coronavirus. I mean, we\u2019re not even close to it. In fact, worldwide we don\u2019t even have 300,000 cases, worldwide, of the coronavirus. Three hundred thousand hospitalized in the United States alone. You don\u2019t even remember it. You know why? Because Barack Obama was president, and he was God, and we couldn\u2019t be critical. We had to build him up and promote him like nothing else we\u2019ve ever seen before.<\/p>\n Hell, you know what? You could still get barbecue wherever you wanted it. Kansas City, Missouri, didn\u2019t shut down because of the swine flu. It\u2019s a big barbecue town. All because the media and the Democrats were interested in making Obama look good and of course the Republicans back then didn\u2019t politicize it. It was a health issue.<\/p>\n So if you\u2019ve got kids, if you\u2019ve got people panicked and worried, “Oh, my God. What do I do?” just give \u2019em the numbers. Swine flu 2009, 2010: 60 million Americans infected, 300,000 hospitalized. And you don\u2019t even remember it. And I guarantee you nine out of 10 people you tell this to, “I don\u2019t remember that.” Exactly. Ask \u2019em why they don\u2019t remember it. “Well, I don\u2019t know.” Yeah, you don\u2019t remember it for one reason. Nobody made any big news about it. “Well, why not?” Well, answer that yourself. Say, “Who was president then?”<\/p>\n “Uh, I don\u2019t know, Millard Fillmore?” No, Barack Obama.<\/p>\n BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n RUSH: Try this. February 12th, 2010, archives, Reuters news: “Swine Flu Has Killed Up to 17,000 in U.S.” February 12th, 2010:<\/a> “H1N1 Swine Flu Has Killed as Much as 17,000 Americans Including 1,800 Children – The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Friday the swine flu pandemic put as many people in the hospital as during the normal influenza season, but most were younger adults and children instead of the elderly.” So the swine flu got the young, 84 million cases, 1,800 children dead, 300,000 total infected, 13,000 adults. That\u2019s a February 12th, 2010, archives at Reuters. Seventeen thousand Americans dead. We don\u2019t have 17,000 people dead worldwide from the coronavirus, folks. And you know what the recovery rate for the coronavirus is, according to the Johns Hopkins University website?<\/p>\n Johns Hopkins University website shows that the recovery rate is — well, I haven\u2019t run the numbers on a percentage. Sixty-five percent. I mean, it\u2019d be easy to calculate if I had the numbers in front of me. If you\u2019ve got 120,000 cases, and we did at one time, and 75,000 recoveries, then what are we talking about?<\/p>\n And what are we gonna do when Tom Hanks and his wife recover? Will that end the panic? Well, in our pop culture society, you never know. It might. It might. Maybe Kim Kardashians and Kanye West need to get the coronavirus and get cured a week later. I know. Maybe Meghan Markle and Prince Harry need to get it and then announce they were cured 10 days later and that would end it.<\/p>\n BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n RUSH: This is John in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. Hey, great to have you on the program, sir. Hello.<\/p>\n CALLER: Hey, Rush. Great speaking to you. I\u2019ve been a longtime listener from the beginning.<\/p>\n RUSH: Thank you, sir.<\/p>\n CALLER: I want to just make the point that I\u2019m finding that there\u2019s an uncanny parallel between the reaction — societal reaction — of what\u2019s going on now with the coronavirus to the reaction of climate change. It\u2019s just amazing the parallels I can see between how we\u2019re supposed to believe that both are existential threats and how both are gonna completely…<\/p>\n If we let it play out the way some people want it to play out, it\u2019s gonna disrupt so many major elements of our economy based on faith basically, and there\u2019s a little dabble of science. You know, I\u2019m not gonna deny that, you know, climate is very variable, and we\u2019ve been through so many worse — as a planet, through so many worse — situations or conditions than we are today.<\/p>\n Just like with your example of the swine flu. We went through a much worse period with the swine flu than potentially we\u2019re going through right now with the coronavirus, but we\u2019re supposed to believe that it\u2019s an existential threat and we\u2019re just canceling everything. It\u2019s crazy.<\/p>\n RUSH: Well, actually your analogy to the climate change thing may be valid in one profound way, and that is, both with climate and now with the coronavirus, what is there a damn, gigantic demand for? Bigger government to take over and do something to fix to save the planet, to save the species, to save this or that or the other thing. Of course, they\u2019re waiting in the wings to take their cues for bigger government.<\/p>\n Nancy Pelosi, Chuck You Schumer, and the rest of the Drive-By Media. So that analogy does have some weight to it. I\u2019m glad you called. Where are we going next? I want to squeeze one more in before the end of the hour. That would be Craig in Dexter, Missouri, which is not far from where I grew up in Cape Girardeau. Great to have you, Craig. Hello, sir.<\/p>\n RUSH: So you\u2019re saying that the terminology here is going a long way to creating the panic?<\/p>\n CALLER: Yes, sir. Nobody\u2019s calling it “the flu.”<\/p>\n RUSH: We can make a movie out of this called the Andromeda Strain 2 —<\/p>\n CALLER: Right.<\/p>\n RUSH: — and say that the COVID virus came from a failed Chinese effort to orbit Mars —<\/p>\n CALLER: (laughing)<\/p>\n RUSH: — beating Elon Musk to Mars. Okay. So if this just had the word “flu” in it, then no big deal. “Why, it\u2019s the corona flu.” It\u2019s the Chinese flu. We could call it the bat flu, or we could call it the snake flu, because that\u2019s where it came from. Well, it\u2019s an interesting point, but it does go to the idea of terminology.<\/p>\n Because obviously our society is perfectly fine with 30,000 people dying from the flu every year. Well, when I say, “perfectly fine,” you know what I mean. We\u2019ve accepted that that happens. The flu has to kill 30,000 people. The wheel kills 50,000. But (dramatically) “COVID-19, the coronavirus from China, by way of Europe…” Yeah. It\u2019s got this mystique to it. Glad you called.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" RUSH: The numbers with the coronavirus are not even close. They are barely a fraction of a percentage compared to the swine flu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":339857,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/APP-CDC-TEARAWAY-030220-x.jpg\")
<\/a>How did we ever survive 60 million infected with the swine flu? But we did to the point that hardly anybody remembers it.<\/a> And that\u2019s just 10 years ago, 300,000 hospitalized. So we overcame it. We overcame Ebola. This is gonna end, it\u2019s gonna pass. And I\u2019ll tell you what else is gonna happen. Because of the actions President Trump has taken, like this travel ban from Europe, that has really put the Democrats in a dicey position.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/APP-031220-Sneeze.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/APP-031220-Flashback.jpg\")
The media wasn\u2019t critical at all. The media was praising the efforts of the government to deal with swine flu. The one difference is the freaking media. And you don\u2019t even remember something 10 times as worse as what is happening now. There weren\u2019t any travel bans.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/APP-tearaway-Reuters-031220.jpg\")
<\/a>And it was during the months when usually very little or no flu is circulating, the CDC said. “The CDC estimates that between 41 million and 84 million cases of the 2009 swine flu occurred between April 2009 and January 16th, 2010.” So it\u2019s maybe more than 60 million, 84 million cases of swine flu. CDC said in a statement, “But between 880 and 1,800 children died. Up to 13,000 adults under the age of 65, and only 1,000 to 2,000 elderly died.”<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/APP-031120-Coronavirus-Doctor.jpg\")
CALLER: Yes, sir. Hi, Rush. Hey, Rush, I know you just mentioned about the 30,000 deaths. I think what everybody seems to be missing is there\u2019s no flu tied to the end of the corona. It\u2019s not the corona flu. It\u2019s COVID-19. I remember when swine flu hit, you called it the pig flu, and when the bird flu hit, it was the bird flu. Nobody\u2019s calling this the flu. They\u2019re calling it like some kind of weird disease that once you get it, it\u2019s over.<\/p>\n