Former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett said on Monday morning’s “Fox and Friends” that the coronavirus pandemic “is not a pandemic.” He also likened it, incorrectly, to the flu.
Co-host Brian Kilmeade introduced Bennett, a frequent Fox News contributor, as someone “putting the data into perspective” when it comes to how many Americans have contracted the virus and how many have died. So far, over 22,000 Americans have died.
“Let’s take a step back,” Bennett said. “The estimates now from the University of Washington — which is the model everybody’s been going on even though it’s been wrong most of the time, by a lot, overstating it — is now, they say 60,000 people will die. 61,000 is what we lost to the flu in 2017 and 2018. The flu. Now, we all regret the loss of 61,000 people, if that’s what it turns out to be — I’m going to tell you, I think it’s going to be less — and salute all those who are working on the front lines on this, the hospital workers, the nurses, the doctors, etc., and the generosity of the American people, but if you look at those numbers — and see the comparable — we’re going to have fewer fatalities from this than from the flu. For this, we scared the hell out of the American people, we lost 17 million jobs, we put a major dent in the economy, we closed down the schools — you heard Dr. Oz say we probably didn’t have to do that — shut down the churches, and so on. You know, this was not, and is not a pandemic. But we do have panic and pandemonium as a result of the hype of this and it’s really unfortunate. Look at the facts.”
The facts are the World Health Organization characterized COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11. Kilmeade pointed out that fact when Bennett finished — and President Trump has declared the pandemic a “national emergency.” Health experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci have cautioned against comparing it to car accidents or the flu, as well.
As of Monday, there have been 1.8+ million confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 115,000+ fatalities.
Fox News contributor Bill Bennett compares coronavirus to the flu, claiming that "this was not and is not a pandemic." pic.twitter.com/Q4oBcXKISV
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) April 13, 2020