March 19, 2020 "Information Clearing House" -  A look at financial records reveal that Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Burr last month—just as he was  big-dollar donors, but not the general public about the looming threat of the coronavirus—personal stock holdings worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, many of them in industries now seriously impacted by the outbreak.

According to Open Secrets:

Burr and his wife Brooke sold between $581,000 and $1.5 million in publicly traded stocks on Feb. 13 and didn’t buy any new positions, according to a recent financial disclosure filed with the Senate. 

Around the time that Burr sold his shares of major corporations, including several hard hit hotel companies, he publicly expressed confidence about the U.S. government's ability to fight the virus. However in late February, Burr privately warned that the virus is "much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in recent history," according to a recording obtained by NPR.

Between the Burrs’ two accounts, they sold up to $150,000 worth of stock in Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, which lost almost two-thirds of its market value since Feb. 13. They sold up to $150,000 in Extended Stay America, another hotel company that lost half its value over the last month. Burr also sold between $15,001 and $50,000 of stock in Park Hotels & Resorts, which saw its stock price drop from nearly $24 to under $5. The hotel industry is asking President Donald Trump for a bailout as Americans increasingly avoid travel.

In an audio recording obtained by NPR, the North Carolina Republican was heard telling donors at a luncheon on Feb. 27 that the coronavirus, officially called COVID-19, would likely spread through the population aggressively—and suggested it could kill hundreds of thousands of people.