"In 2018, the Trump administration fired the government’s entire pandemic response chain of command, including the White House management infrastructure."
"As it improvises its way through a public health crisis, the United States has never been less prepared for a pandemic."
"When Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), declared the Wuhan coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern on Thursday, he praised China for taking “unprecedented” steps to control the deadly virus. “I have never seen for myself this kind of mobilization,” he noted. “China is actually setting a new standard for outbreak response.”
The epidemic control efforts unfolding today in China—including placing some 100 million citizens on lockdown, shutting down a national holiday, building enormous quarantine hospitals in days’ time, and ramping up 24-hour manufacturing of medical equipment—are indeed gargantuan. It’s impossible to watch them without wondering, “What would we do? How would my government respond if this virus spread across my country?”
For the United States, the answers are especially worrying because the government has intentionally rendered itself incapable. In 2018, the Trump administration fired the government’s entire pandemic response chain of command, including the White House management infrastructure. In numerous phone calls and emails with key agencies across the U.S. government, the only consistent response I encountered was distressed confusion. If the United States still has a clear chain of command for pandemic response, the White House urgently needs to clarify what it is — not just for the public but for the government itself, which largely finds itself in the dark."
Laurie Garrett reports for Foreign Policy January 31, 2020.
SEE ALSO:
"U.S. Stocks Plunge as Coronavirus Crisis Spreads" (New York Times)
"White House Asking Congress For $2.5 Billion To Fight Coronavirus" (The Hill)
Advertisement 
