Concluding Trump's Disastrous Presidency

[VanHammersly]

1 hour ago, PoconoDon said:

Yeah, South Korea lives every day in the shadow of the next Chinese outbreak. They're always ready for it.

Highlighted part - That's only partly true. Some of the pandemic response team members were reassigned to duties that included pandemic response. Was it as robust as under Obama, no it wasn't. Was it completely disbanded functionally? No, not completely.

We've been dealing with this for a couple months now and estimates say that the millions of test kits needed won't be ready until the end of the 2nd quarter at best. Even if the Fed had pushed the panic button back in January, we'd just now be getting the tests out to the public in the necessary numbers.

Did the Administration drag their feet? Yes. If they didn't, would it have made a big difference? I'm not so sure.

https://www.newstatesman.com/world/north-america/2020/03/america-pandemic-response-swine-flu-avian

On 8 May 2018, Donald Trump signed Rescission Proposal R18-1, asking the US government to take back $15bn in spending. At the time, coverage of these cuts focussed on the $7bn that would be taken from the Children’s Health Insurance Program. But the 38-page proposal details a swathe of other cuts. Among these was the removal of the remaining $252m budget for International Disaster Assistance that had been committed in 2015 as part of the Ebola response, and the State Department’s $30m Complex Crises Fund. The CDC, in response to previous funding cuts, had already reduced its pandemic preparedness activity in 39 countries. On the day R18-1 was signed, the WHO announced a new outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo.   

Two days later the newly appointed National Security Advisor, John Bolton, dissolved the Global Health Security team within the NSC. Timothy Ziemer, the most senior White House official in charge of responses to pandemics or bioterrorism, left that day and was not replaced.

The issue with these programmes was not that they were expensive –  the $282m saved on pandemic preparedness by R18-1 represents less than 0.007 per cent of US government spending in 2018 – but that they were connected to the health security agenda, which had been an Obama project.

 

[Jsvand12]

59 minutes ago, VanHammersly said:

https://www.newstatesman.com/world/north-america/2020/03/america-pandemic-response-swine-flu-avian

On 8 May 2018, Donald Trump signed Rescission Proposal R18-1, asking the US government to take back $15bn in spending. At the time, coverage of these cuts focussed on the $7bn that would be taken from the Children’s Health Insurance Program. But the 38-page proposal details a swathe of other cuts. Among these was the removal of the remaining $252m budget for International Disaster Assistance that had been committed in 2015 as part of the Ebola response, and the State Department’s $30m Complex Crises Fund. The CDC, in response to previous funding cuts, had already reduced its pandemic preparedness activity in 39 countries. On the day R18-1 was signed, the WHO announced a new outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo.   

Two days later the newly appointed National Security Advisor, John Bolton, dissolved the Global Health Security team within the NSC. Timothy Ziemer, the most senior White House official in charge of responses to pandemics or bioterrorism, left that day and was not replaced.

The issue with these programmes was not that they were expensive –  the $282m saved on pandemic preparedness by R18-1 represents less than 0.007 per cent of US government spending in 2018 – but that they were connected to the health security agenda, which had been an Obama project.

 

Ahh, so it’s Obama’s fault. Just as we all suspected. Damn Kenyans 

[PoconoDon]

CONFLICTING OPINIONS ON WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TEAM

In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Beth Cameron, former Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense in the NSC, wrote, "When President Trump took office in 2017, the White House’s National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense survived the transition intact.

"Its mission was the same as when I was asked to lead the office, established after the Ebola epidemic of 2014: to do everything possible within the vast powers and resources of the U.S. government to prepare for the next disease outbreak and prevent it from becoming an epidemic or pandemic. One year later, I was mystified when the White House dissolved the office, leaving the country less prepared for pandemics like covid-19” ( here ).

Three days later, Tim Morrison, former senior director for counterproliferation and biodefense on the NSC, wrote in another Washington Post Op-Ed, "It is true that the Trump administration has seen fit to shrink the NSC staff. But the bloat that occurred under the previous administration clearly needed a correction. … One such move at the NSC was to create the counterproliferation and biodefense directorate, which was the result of consolidating three directorates into one, given the obvious overlap between arms control and nonproliferation, weapons of mass destruction terrorism, and global health and biodefense. It is this reorganization that critics have misconstrued or intentionally misrepresented. If anything, the combined directorate was stronger because related expertise could be commingled” ( here ).

On March 14, 2020, John Bolton described the changes made to the team as streamlining. He tweeted: "Claims that streamlining NSC structures impaired our nation's bio defense are false. Global health remained a top NSC priority, and its expert team was critical to effectively handling the 2018-19 Africa Ebola crisis. The angry Left just can't stop attacking, even in a crisis.” ( here )

CONCLUSIONS

There is disagreement over how to describe the changes at the NSC’s Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense in 2018. The departure of some members due to "streamlining” efforts under John Bolton is documented. The "pandemic response team” as a unit was largely disbanded.

VERDICT

Partly false: The Trump administration disbanded the "pandemic response” team, but some of the team members were reassigned to roles that included pandemic response

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact checking work here .

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-trump-fired-pandemic-team/partly-false-claim-trump-fired-pandemic-response-team-in-2018-idUSKBN21C32M