FLASHBACK TO 2009: “Well, shut his mouth: Blabbering Joe Biden was a swine flu dope,” said a New York Daily News editorial from Apr 30, 2009. It makes for fascinating reading nearly 11 years later:

Less than 12 hours after President Obama urged calm — along with hand-washing and covering the mouth when coughing — there was Biden on the “Today” show, pleased as punch to be on national television with Matt Lauer and ready to incite the American public to panic.

We quote: “I would tell members of my family — and I have — I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now. It’s not going to Mexico, it’s you’re in a confined aircraft when one person sneezes it goes all the way through the aircraft. That’s me. I would not be, at this point, if they had another way of transportation, suggesting they ride the subway. So from my perspective, what it relates to is mitigation.

“If you’re out in the middle of a field and someone sneezes, that’s one thing. If you’re in a closed aircraft or a closed container, a closed car, a closed classroom, it’s a different thing.”

Let’s keep all the kids home from school, why don’t we?

And destroy the already crippled world economy.

And kiss all we know and love about New York goodbye. Like our jobs.

Later, after someone read him the “Idiot’s Guide to Public Health Procedures for Powerful Politicians,” Biden dispatched aides to say he didn’t mean to say what he said. The aides had to say that because saying what Biden said made him a jerk.

Read the whole thing.