In his quest to minimize the impact of the coronavirus, stage IV cancer patient and drug addict Rush Limbaugh said that the people of the United States should just adapt to the risks and take on the the attitude of the Donner Party, a group of migrants who resorted to cannibalism after being stuck in a snowstorm in the mountains.
“It’s just what was. They didn’t complain about it,” Limbaugh said of the members of the Donner Party, “because there was nothing they could do. They had to adapt.” Transcripts are available at Media Matters.
Limbaugh, who is not particularly noted as an historian, also cited the “Spanish flu” epidemic of 1918: “In the Spanish flu — ’17, ’18, ’19, 1917, ’18 — much death. Do you know that there was not one mention of it by the president of the United States at the time, Woodrow Wilson?”
Wilson didn’t mention the Spanish flu epidemic because the US and its allies were fighting World War I, and he didn’t want the enemies to know forces were being decimated by disease.
“There was no shutdown, there was just, ‘Hey, go outside, get some fresh air, stand in the sun as long as you can, get some vitamin D, feel better,'” continued Limbaugh, failing to note that between 500,000 and 800,000 Americans died of the H1N1 flu during that pandemic, putting into question Limbaugh’s medical advice.