Burr sold stocks, gave dire warning before coronavirus took off

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Richard Burr sold up to $1.5 million in stocks, including hotel chains, in mid-February weeks before he warned a private group that the coronavirus was “akin to the 1918 pandemic” and warned it to rethink European travel.

The stock sales Feb. 13 were reflected on a financial disclosure form filed with the Senate on Feb. 27, the same day he spoke to members of the Tar Heel Circle, a high-dollar membership organization that is part of the North Carolina State Society of Washington, D.C. ProPublica and the Center for Responsive Politics first reported the stock sales. NPR first reported Burr’s comments.

Burr, a North Carolina Republican, is chairman of the Senate Intelligence

Committee. The committee was receiving daily updates on the coronavirus outbreak by late February, Reuters reported at the time.

“There’s one thing I can tell you about this. It is much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in recent history. It’s probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic,” Burr told the Tar Heel Circle group on Feb. 27.

Burr, in a series of tweets on Thursday night, said the event was publicly advertised and widely attended by “many non-members, bipartisan congressional staff and representatives from the governor’s office.” NPR said it received the audio from an attendee at the event. It was not an open media event.

“The message I shared with my constituents is the one public health officials urged all of us to heed as the coronavirus spread increased. Be prepared,” Burr wrote.

“COVID-19 is a rapidly evolving situation. To know if we’ve been successful in stemming it, we have to keep an accurate accounting of our nation’s response. Purposefully misleading listeners for the sake of a ‘narrative,’ like NPR has done, makes us less safe.”

In 1918 and 1919, the Spanish Flu pandemic is estimated to have killed more than 50 million people worldwide and more than 675,000 Americans, according to the CDC. It infected more than 500 million people, about one-third of the world’s population at that time.

There are more than 242,000 coronavirus cases worldwide and have been more than 9,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the pandemic. In North

Carolina, more than 100 people have tested positive. There have been no deaths in the state because of the virus.

The stock market has been pummeled in recent weeks with industries most affected by the coronavirus, including in the travel industry, being the hardest hit. Among the stocks Burr sold were hotel chains, according to the disclosure. There were no buys listed on the disclosure form.

The accounts are held by Burr, his wife or jointly, according to ProPublica. The amount sold was between $581,000 and $1.5 million. The exact figure is not known because of the broad reporting categories used on the Senate forms.

“Senator Burr filed a financial disclosure form for personal transactions made several weeks before the U.S. and financial markets showed signs of volatility due to the growing coronavirus outbreak,” his spokesperson said to both publications. “As the situation continues to evolve daily, he has been deeply concerned by the steep and sudden toll this pandemic is taking on our economy.”

In the audio published by NPR, Burr warns the group’s members and their businesses about traveling to Europe. President Donald Trump’s travel ban to European nations went into effect on March 14 as the outbreak ravaged Italy and other nations.

“Every company should be cognizant of the fact that you may have to alter your travel, you may have to look at employees and judge whether the trip they are making to Europe is essential or whether it can be done on video-conferencing. Why risk it?” Burr told the group.

Burr was one of three senators to vote against the STOCK Act, a 2012 bill “that explicitly prevents members of Congress and their staffs from using nonpublic information for insider trading,” according to McClatchy reporting at the time. Burr called the bill “ludicrous” and said existing laws already covered it for all Americans, including members of Congress.