The chairman of the Senate Intelligence
Committee warned a small group of well-connected
constituents three weeks ago to prepare for dire
economic and societal effects of the coronavirus,
according to a secret recording obtained by NPR.
The remarks from U.S. Sen. Richard Burr were
more stark than any he had delivered in more
public forums.
On Feb. 27, when the United States had 15
confirmed cases of COVID-19, President Trump was
tamping down fears and suggesting the virus
could be seasonal.
“It’s going to disappear. One day, It’s like
a miracle. It will disappear,” the president
said then, before adding, “it could get worse
before it gets better. It could maybe go away.
We’ll see what happens.”
On that same day, Burr attended a luncheon
held at a social club called the Capitol Hill
Club. And he delivered a much more alarming
message.
“There’s one thing that I can tell you about
this: It is much more aggressive in its
transmission than anything that we have seen in
recent history,” he said, according to a secret
recording of the remarks obtained by NPR. “It is
probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic.”
He went on to say we could see the military
deployed to assist in the response.
Read it all. The story has the audio of the
speech.
