As the coronavirus outbreak has gained steam in the U.S., the nation’s ability to combat the rapidly-escalating crisis has been hampered by Republicans, who repeatedly downplayed the virus and called it a “hoax” until it was too late. While President Donald Trump has been the worst offender of spouting misinformation about the threat, aided by Fox News, the coronavirus and its devastating impact on the U.S. have also been minimized by more rank-and-file members of the GOP. Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, for instance, wrote in a Fox News op-ed February 7 with Sen. Lamar Alexander that Americans shouldn't worry about the coronavirus, because thanks to the Senate and Trump administration, “the United States today is better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus.” Behind closed doors, however, Burr was telling well-connected donors a much different story—and taking steps to privately save his own finances before the virus tanked the U.S. economy.

NPR reported Thursday that Burr delivered an alarming message about the coronavirus to “a small group of well-connected constituents” February 27, privately warning them of the sort of major societal disruptions that would soon come to pass. “There's one thing that I can tell you about this: It is much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in recent history,” Burr said, per a recording of the remarks obtained by NPR. “It is probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic.” The North Carolina senator went on to warn attendees at the Tar Heel Circle luncheon—which NPR reports largely consisted of invited guests representing North Carolina companies and organizations that had donated to Burr’s 2016 campaign—that travel to Europe was likely to be halted, schools were likely to close, and the military was likely to be called to help with the medical response. All of these warnings came weeks before these measures would be sprung on the American public.

The lead-up to the recent coronavirus chaos also apparently gave Burr a chance to preserve his own personal wealth before the coronavirus tanked the stock market. ProPublica reports that Burr sold off between $628,000 and $1.72 million in stocks through 33 separate transactions on February 13—one week before the stock market plunged in response to COVID-19. The activity was the Senator's largest stock-selling day in at least 14 months, ProPublica analyzed using public records, and included selling off up to $150,000 in shares of Wyndham Hotels and Resorts and up to $100,000 in shares of economy hospitality chain Extended Stay America. (Given the coronavirus's outsized impact on the tourism industry, both companies have since lost more than half their value.) Burr, who Reuters noted February 27 has received daily briefings on the coronavirus through the Senate Intelligence Committee, is expressly prohibited from trading on nonpublic information under the STOCK Act—a piece of legislation that he was one of only three lawmakers to oppose in 2012.

Burr’s clear private warnings and personal actions responding to the coronavirus stand in stark contrast to the North Carolina Senator’s public comments on the virus. Though the Senator is particularly knowledgeable when it comes to the U.S.'s pandemic response—in addition to serving as Senate Intel chair, he also helped write the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act that provides the framework for the federal response—Burr did not use his expertise to educate the public about the growing threat. The North Carolina Senator did not comment on the coronavirus on social media until North Carolina had its first case of COVID-19 on March 3, and took a much more optimistic tone in his Fox News op-ed than he reportedly did behind closed doors. “No matter the outbreak or threat, Congress and the federal government have been vigilant in identifying gaps in its readiness efforts and improving its response capabilities,” Burr and Alexander wrote. If Burr had instead delivered the kind of warning to the American people weeks ago that he privately knew to be true, his transparency could have made a difference in the American public’s early response to what is now a major emergency. “Being transparent, being as clear as possible is very important,” Jason Silverstein, a lecturer at the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, told NPR. “The type of language that could have come out there at the end of February saying here's what we ought to expect could have, you know, not panicked people, but gotten them all together to have to all prepare.”