Bush Jr. read the book "The Great Influenza" and it "freaked him out."

[Renew Deal]

I was just watching ABC's retelling of the Coronavirus story. One of the parts is that Bush was on one of his long vacations in Crawford and he read a book in 2005 about the Spanish Flu. ABC said that "freaked him out" and he decided to focus his administration on it.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/george-bush-2005-wait-pandemic-late-prepare/story?id=69979013

[Maru Kitteh]

1. It's an extraordinary book.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. Well, yeah. It's an absolutely incredible book.

I read a LOT of books about diseases and epidemiology and this is one of the very best.

Also, anything at all by Laurie Garrett.

[cannabis_flower]

19. I read

The Coming Plague. Scary stuff. I read it before the West African Ebola epidemic. Basically says more is coming.

[RandySF]

3. It almost killed my grandmother.

[Cha]

7. My paternal grandfather died from it in 1919...

guess that was the 2nd wave.

He worked in a train station in Eastern Colorado.

[Norbert]

23. It did kill my dad's cousin.

He was in basic training in Oklahoma when he caught it.

[Hekate]

4. Color me surprised, but that is to his credit

[Ex Lurker]

10. GWB was not a sociopath

incompetent, but not a sociopath

[LudwigPastorius]

14. I wouldn't say that.

He elected to start a war that killed over half a million people, and I'll bet he sleeps like a baby every night.

[Mariana]

15. He's probably long since convinced himself

that he actually saved millions and millions of lives with his war.

[dflprincess]

13. Me too.

I'm also surprised he has enough imagination to have realized it could happen again and the time to prepare was before it did.

[GulfCoast66]

5. It's a great read. And not too long. Scary as hell.

The most chilling part is the last chapter when he imagines that same virus today. Our ICUs, which can save people, would quickly be full and people would just die. Covid is bad. But that flu was way worse. People would get on a bus feeling ok and fall off dead. They actually had Monte Python style death wagons picking up the dead in Philadelphia. The worst part it killed mainly by cytokine storm. So it killed those between 20 and 40 at the highest rate. Because their immune systems went crazy and killed them. The old and young were less at risk.

Imagine that with with social media! The book was written before it plagued us.

If you haven’t read it you should.

Too bad trump can’t read.

[lunatica]

9. Trump's grandfather on his father's side died of it

The same one who made his fortune by following the gold rush prospectors with brothels.

Trump’s father never spoke of him, so it might be possible Trump doesn’t even know. It was in Mary Trump’s book. Trump talks a lot of the Spanish Influenza in 1917, but he never mentions his grandfather. Maybe it’s because of the brothels.

[BigmanPigman]

17. If the fucking moron either

A. Read anything, ever .....or
B. Gave a shit about anyone other than himself and money...

he could Google his own family's history and find out that he died while walking with his evil kid, Fred.

"The family story of his death is that "on May 29, 1918, while walking with his son Fred, Trump suddenly felt extremely sick and was rushed to bed. The next day, he was dead. What was first diagnosed as pneumonia turned out to be one of the early cases of the Spanish flu, which caused millions of deaths around the world."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Trump

[herding cats]

6. It's truly a must read book.

That Baby Bush read it... well, that's good, but the RW'S bar is so much lower now.

I suppose it was 2008 when they consummated the embracing of their loony side. Prior to then they just heavy petted them on election years.

[tinrobot]

8. Color me surprised that he actually read a book.

But good for him.

[robbob]

26. Does "My Pet Goat" count?

Give the man some credit! That’s actually TWO books he’s read...

[JI7]

11. I doubt he actually read it but I can see him hearing about it

from others and agreeing it was a serious matter.

[Blue Owl]

12. I think all previous presidents before DT took pandemics fairly seriously

I don't recall any of them disbanding the CDC over some petty grudge.

DT is a fucking menace to society. If he just would have kept the CDC and let them do their job, none of this would be happening. Just think about that -- there wouldn't be a pandemic, we'd be going about life and business like usual. But because of the petty, feeble mind of one man, here we are...

[C Moon]

16. I don't like Bush Jr. or Sr. They helped launch us into what we are dealing with now: TumPutin

And I think if Cheney would have told Jr. he found a way to make money on a pandemic, he would have rolled over and obeyed.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

21. Those two would have Halliburton making respirators and developing a vaccine.....

from crude oil.

KY......... ........

[C Moon]

27. Exactly!

[rpannier]

18. A Coloring Book version might help to get trump's attention

[hlthe2b]

20. As much as my disdain for GWBush*-- at least he READ.

He could be an a'hole, a moron, and clueless, but he was not ineducable. Disdain or no, we'd undoubtedly be in better shape now if it were him and not Trump in office. No doubt.

[llmart]

22. I doubt he read it.

Maybe he read the Cliff Notes. Or someone else read it and briefed him on the high points.

Let's not start thinking he was a good President. He wasn't.

[uponit7771]

24. +1

[dalton99a]

25. The village idiot/war criminal was a gentleman and a scholar compared to the sack of shit.