During a February 29 press conference, Trump confirmed that he was considering closing the U.S.-Mexico border in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

“We are thinking about the southern border, ” Trump said when a reporter at the White House press conference asked him about a potential border closure. “We are looking at that very strongly.“

As CNBC noted, there have been 66 confirmed cases in the United States, while there have only been three in Mexico. Additionally, the coronavirus-related deaths in the United States have come in Washington state so far, which is much closer to the Canadian border than the Mexican one.

Trump walked back his statement about the Mexican border when pushed by reporters about his reasoning.

“We’re thinking about all borders, we have to think about that border,” the president said. “This is not a border that seems to be much of a problem right now, we hope we will not have to do that.”

The United States has a long and checkered history of people spreading nativist fears during widespread illnesses, including recent outbreaks such as Ebola, SARS, and swine flu, and racist hysteria surrounding recent pandemics has been stoked by right-wing media figures.

During the swine flu outbreak in 2009, for instance, conservative pundits like Michael Savage and Glenn Beck blamed the illness on Mexican immigrants. Many news outlets have also pointed out the similarities between the racist fearmongering that took place during the SARS scare of 2003, which originated in mainland China, and the xenophobia being stoked about COVID-19.