He was just a little bit off on that one.
During Senate testimony Tuesday, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf was grilled by Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) about the United States' preparedness for a potential coronavirus outbreak. At one point Kennedy asked Wolf about the virus' fatality rate, which Wolf said was likely somewhere between 1.5 and 2 percent. He then veered off course by telling Kennedy that the flu's fatality rate is in the same ballpark, which is not correct or even particularly close.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Book reviews: ‘Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America’ and ‘How to End a Story: Collected Diaries, 1978–1998’Feature A political ‘witch hunt’ and Helen Garner’s journal entries
-
The backlash against ChatGPT's Studio Ghibli filterThe Explainer The studio's charming style has become part of a nebulous social media trend
-
Why are student loan borrowers falling behind on payments?Today's Big Question Delinquencies surge as the Trump administration upends the program
-
Measles outbreak spreads, as does RFK Jr.'s influenceSpeed Read The outbreak centered in Texas has grown to at least three states and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is promoting unproven treatments
-
RFK Jr. offers alternative remedies as measles spreadsSpeed Read Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. makes unsupported claims about containing the spread as vaccine skepticism grows
-
Texas outbreak brings 1st US measles death since 2015Speed read The outbreak is concentrated in a 'close-knit, undervaccinated' Mennonite community in rural Gaines County
-
Mystery illness spreading in Congo rapidly kills dozensSpeed Read The World Health Organization said 53 people have died in an outbreak that originated in a village where three children ate a bat carcass
-
Ozempic can curb alcohol cravings, study findsSpeed read Weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy may also be helpful in limiting alcohol consumption
-
New form of H5N1 bird flu found in US dairy cowsSpeed Read This new form of bird flu is different from the version that spread through herds in the last year
-
Microplastics accumulating in human brains, study findsSpeed Read The amount of tiny plastic particles found in human brains increased dramatically from 2016 to 2024
-
FDA approves painkiller said to thwart addictionSpeed Read Suzetrigine, being sold as Journavx, is the first new pharmaceutical pain treatment approved by the FDA in 20 years
