Flu and Covid: We Can Handle the Truth

AP, October 6, 2020:

President Donald Trump is back to making false comparisons between COVID-19 and the flu, contradicting science and even himself.

TRUMP: “Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu. Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!” — tweet Tuesday.

October 11, 2021, Honolulu Star-Advertiser:

As COVID-19 continues to dictate public life and government policy in Hawaii, influenza and pneumonia have quietly killed at least 859 people over the past 12 months, exceeding the coronavirus death toll for the entire pandemic.

Former President Trump was in the habit of making sweeping declarative statements that weren't true at all times and places. However, politicians, tech gatekeepers, and the media frequently took an extreme opposite tack: there was absolutely no truth in what he said.

Give us the nuance, people, you're supposedly the smart ones. We can handle the truth!