Democratic California Sen. Kamala Harris kicked off her bid for the vice presidency Wednesday with a misleading attack on President Donald Trump.
Harris made a direct comparison between the coronavirus pandemic — which has ravaged most of the world in a matter of months — and the ebola outbreak that took place in 2014. (RELATED: ‘People Will Say Anything To Get Power’: Greg Gutfeld Launches Attack On Biden And Harris)
WATCH:
“It didn’t have to be this way. 6 years ago, in fact, we had a different health crisis. It was called Ebola … Barack Obama and Joe Biden did their job. Only two people in the United States died. Two. That is what’s called leadership,” Harris said.
Kamala Harris: “It didn’t have to be this way. 6 years ago, in fact, we had a different health crisis. It was called Ebola … Barack Obama and Joe Biden did their job. Only two people in the United States died. Two. That is what’s called leadership.”
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 12, 2020
But Harris left out a number of details that made it clear that the two viruses were very different.
The death rate from Ebola was much higher — over 50% — and the CDC recorded 11,325 deaths over the course of two and a half years. Only eleven cases were treated in the United States, two of which were fatal.
Ebola isn’t nearly as transmissible or contagious as COVID-19. Even at the height of the Ebola epidimic in West Africa, around 11,310 people died from a total of 28,616 cases. https://t.co/5Z1wEeattYhttps://t.co/Xhnaw1mnUBhttps://t.co/dbCtTRHfVN https://t.co/LRXJvaDrXz pic.twitter.com/ZjjgHx67YL
— Elias Atienza (@AtienzaElias) August 12, 2020
The Ebola outbreak was also not technically labeled a “pandemic,” meeting only the requirements to be termed an “epidemic.”
.@KamalaHarris falsely claims 2014 US Ebola outbreak was a “pandemic.”
While it fit the criteria to be an epidemic, or a sudden spike in cases, it never met the requirements to be labeled a “pandemic” like the coronavirus.https://t.co/ZOsAm1UVA5
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) August 12, 2020
The CDC explains the difference between the two:
An outbreak is called an epidemic when there is a sudden increase in cases. As COVID-19 began spreading in Wuhan, China, it became an epidemic. Because the disease then spread across several countries and affected a large number of people, it was classified as a pandemic.
Several critics — some of them doctors — chastised Harris for drawing the comparison, calling it “irresponsible,” “dishonest” and “pure bullsh**t.”
There is absolutely no comparision between Ebola and the novel coronavirus/COVID.
2009, H1N1: Obama/Biden abandoned any effort against it months before it faded. They hoped for the best and, per their own “czar” Ron Klain, got lucky.
The Ebola-COVID line is pure bullshit.
— Nan Hayworth, M.D. (@NanHayworth) August 12, 2020
Ebola was an epidemic. Kamala falsely referred to it as a pandemic. There’s no good comparison between the coronavirus pandemic & the Ebola epidemic, yet a Democratic congressman is trying to justify it. Do Democrats not expect better than “But Trump did” from their VP nominee? https://t.co/QWEUsrLtfx
— JERRY DUNLEAVY (@JerryDunleavy) August 12, 2020
Comparing COVID19 to Ebola is irresponsible and highlights how little people understand public health and disease transmission.
— Nicole Saphier, MD (@NBSaphierMD) August 12, 2020
Harris now comparing Ebola to COVID-19, which is infinitely more contagious.
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) August 12, 2020
Ebola and COVID-19 are simply not comparable problems and it is dishonest to pretend that they are.
— JERRY DUNLEAVY (@JerryDunleavy) August 12, 2020