Did Gorsuch misstate the number of flu deaths? The transcript—not the justice—was wrong
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday issued a corrected transcript of Justice Neil M. Gorsuch’s oral arguments comment about flu deaths after some observers claimed that he overstated the numbers.
Gorsuch made the comment during oral arguments Friday on a federal vaccine mandate for larger employers, report the Hill, Law & Crime and Fox News.
The original, incorrect transcript quoted Gorsuch as saying he thinks that the flu kills “hundreds of thousands of people every year.”
In the corrected transcript, Gorsuch said he thought that the flu kills “hundreds, thousands of people every year.”
Gorsuch was making the point that the federal government does not mandate flu vaccines for every worker, even though the flu can be deadly.
The corrected quote is the one heard by Robert Barnes, a Supreme Court reporter for the Washington Post, he said in a tweet about the corrected transcript.
Another Twitter user who also heard “hundreds, thousands of people” posted the recording of the statement:
Hey geniuses. You are falsely smearing Justice Gorsuch for a TRANSCRIPTION ERROR.
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) January 8, 2022
Listen carefully: "Flu kills, I believe, hundreds, thousands of people every year."
Correct and retract your false stories.
At 1:50:00 https://t.co/Pm3wZuB8kz pic.twitter.com/WfD21LrLWH
