Secret Recording Exposes Chairman Intelligence Committee Warning Donors About Coronavirus 3 Weeks Ago

  “It is probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic,” North Carolina’s Republican Sen. Richard Burr said

link: Rolling Stone

UPDATE: ProPublica reported on Thursday that Sen. Burr sold off up to $1.56 million in stock on February 13th, as he was reassuring the public about coronavirus preparedness. At the time, Burr and the Intelligence Committee were receiving daily briefings about COVID-19.
Original story below.
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Three weeks ago, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee privately warned dozens of donors about the harrowing impact the coronavirus would have on the United States, while keeping the general public in the dark.
In a secret recording obtained by NPR, North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr is heard giving attendees of a club luncheon a much different message than most federal government officials, especially President Trump, were giving the public at the time.
“There’s one thing that I can tell you about this,” Burr said, “It is much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in recent history.” He added, “It is probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic.”

That pandemic claimed more than 600,000 American lives. While Burr’s public comments about the coronavirus at the time were rather tame, he provided facts about the dire reality of the virus to members of the Capitol Hill Club, a North Carolina group that consists of heads of businesses and organizations. According to federal records cited by NPR, the companies represented at the luncheon donated more than $100,000 to Burr’s election campaign in 2015 and 2016.