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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSnopes: Did Trump Fire the US Pandemic Response Team?
Hat tip, commenter 2patricius2 at Joe.My.God:
February 26, 2020
{snip}
2patricius2 KnownDonorDad 3 hours ago edited
From Snopes about Trump and our ability to handle pandemics:: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-fire-pandemic-team/
Politics
Did Trump Fire the US Pandemic Response Team?
As a new coronavirus spread in 2020, so did concerns about the United States' preparedness for a potential pandemic.
BETHANIA PALMA
PUBLISHED 26 FEBRUARY 2020
Claim
The Trump administration fired the U.S. pandemic response team in 2018 to cut costs.
Rating
Origin
Amid warnings from public health officials that a 2020 outbreak of a new coronavirus could soon become a pandemic involving the U.S., alarmed readers asked Snopes to verify a rumor that U.S. President Donald Trump fired the entire pandemic response team two years ago and then didnt replace them.
The claim came from a series of tweets posted by Judd Legum, who runs Popular Information, a newsletter he describes as being about politics and power. The commentary is representative of sharp criticism from Democratic legislators (and some Republicans) that the Trump administration has ill-prepared the country for a pandemic, even as one is looming.
Legum outlined a series of cost-cutting decisions made by the Trump administration in preceding years that gutted the nations infectious disease defense infrastructure. The pandemic response team is a reference to news stories from spring 2018 reporting that White House officials tasked with directing a national response to a pandemic had been ousted.
Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer abruptly departed from his post leading the global health security team on the National Security Council in May 2018 amid a reorganization of the council by then-National Security Advisor John Bolton. Ziemers team was disbanded. Tom Bossert, who as The Washington Post reported, had called for a comprehensive biodefense strategy against pandemics and biological attacks, had been fired one month prior.
Its true that the Trump administration axed the executive branch team responsible for coordinating a response to a pandemic and did not replace it, eliminating Ziemers position and reassigning others, although Bolton was the executive at the top of the National Security Council chain of command at the time.
{snip}
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)PCIntern
(25,612 posts)klook
(12,171 posts)Newest Reality
(12,712 posts)Teacher: "Now students, listen carefully. One of the President's highest priorities is to placate Wall St. and keep it safe in order to assure his own, many re-elections to come. We will go into more details on a President's duties to himself, but first let's talk about public health and safety and how we are all on our own and why that is cost effective and patriotic."
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)The Trump administration does nothing that isn't specifically and directly attributable to Trump. It doesn't matter if John Bolton was somewhere in the chain of command, the buck stops with the guy in the Oval Office. And this "Ziemer's team was disbanded" sounds like nothing so much as "mistakes were made." Ziemer's team didn't disband itself, did it? Someone handed those people their walking papers and it was Donald Trump.
TY!
certainot
(9,090 posts)envisioning similar positive election results for 2020 and coronavirus. in 2014 jerome corsi (mueller report redactions, wikileaks) spent a full month of october 2014 hyping ebola every day on World Net Daily to feed the radio stations
this time someone was using soc media to get local congolese to attack ebola clinics, helping it spread. and limbaugh and sons were using radio to suggest congolese were part of the caravans 'invading' our borders
meanwhile trumps detention centers are overcrowded and poorly managed
at some level the trump fascists and those in 'defense' and 'security' industries still may still want a pandenic but some may have realized late that coronavirus was more than they could handle if they actually get the blame.
normally trump friend limbaugh leads efforts to blame democrats/liberals/socialists for everything the right fucks up and it usually works whether it takes aa few days of excuse-making and blame redirection or years - like who got us into iraq - but that shit may croak before too long and no one can take his place
MontanaMama
(23,364 posts)Shout this from the rooftops and from every social media platform. Rub his orange nose in it.
gordianot
(15,248 posts)Almost every single bite I get from Trumpers in the wild try to deflect with a personal insult or reference random Democrats from Clintons, Pelosi to even Al Gore. To me that is a sure sign I am drawing blood. I leave them with this question that so far has never got a response; Will you be able to afford the vaccination when it becomes available? I smell real fear in Trump world.
IronLionZion
(45,579 posts)that this douchebag is throwing all of America under the bus just to save a few bucks. Tax cuts won't help in a world-wide pandemic as more Americans gets sick and die. Dumbass only cares about the stock market.
Haggis for Breakfast
(6,831 posts)trump is a rank amateur, who thought that he could run this nation like he ran his businesses. And he certainly is trying to do exactly that -- run this nation right into the ground. He bankrupted his companies, now he'd bankrupting this country with his incompetent, unprofessional response to a serious medical threat to all Americans. This shit-for-brains fuck would see Americans die before he'd admit that he left us totally defenseless and unprepared for this.
MAKE THIS A CAMPAIGN ISSUE. You bet your ass, because if we don't get him out, it WILL be our asses on the line.
Look around the world and see what other nations - without our sophisticated medical apparatus - are responding.
Japan has closed all schools for a month. And may cancel the Summer Olympic Games.
Italy and France are advising citizens not to travel outside the countries.
Saudi Arabia is prohibiting Muslims from other nations to attend the Hajj this year.
South Korea has set up check-in testing all over the country. People are checked whenever they enter a business.
Yet, here, all the WH is concerned about is how the stock market is doing. This fat fuck has contradicted public health officials, I'm half expecting him to whip out his little sharpie and start drawing pictures for us.
MAKE THIS A CAMPAIGN ISSUE, AS WELL AS HOW HE HAS LEFT US UNPROTECTED AND UNPREPARED. AND HE HAS DONE IT FOR THE SAKE OF FUCKING MONEY.
krispos42
(49,445 posts)Nobody expects the Wusan coronavirus!
panader0
(25,816 posts)So of course he got rid of it.
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,675 posts)panader0
(25,816 posts)mahatmakanejeeves
(57,675 posts)Kathy M
(1,242 posts)JudyM
(29,294 posts)I remember when it happened, good to see a refresher on the facts.
TommyCelt
(838 posts)FINALLY will something stick to the Teflon Don?
wnylib
(21,677 posts)Chainfire
(17,671 posts)It will be Obama's fault.
yaesu
(8,020 posts)Nature Man
(869 posts)VP Dense is on the job!
usaf-vet
(6,224 posts)Rating
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-fire-pandemic-team/
Blue Owl
(50,532 posts)DonaldsRump
(7,715 posts)You both have wads of cash. Please publicize this right, left, and center.
I cannot believe this fool who is occupying OUR White House is even dumber than I thought he was. Or maybe he just is evil and is intentionally doing this to hurt those who cannot afford the treatment.
Trump is destroying our country. IT IS TIME FOR US TO TAKE IT BACK.
eilen
(4,950 posts)I highly recommend it.
"Tearing down America's pandemic response infrastructure
In 2018, the Trump administration ousted Rear Adm. Tim Ziemer, who served as the Senior Director of Global Health Security. Ziemer was a member of the National Security Council, where he was responsible for coordinating "responses to global health emergencies and potential pandemics." Ziemer was lauded as "one of the most quietly effective leaders in public health." His work on Malaria during the Obama administration helped save 6 million lives.
"Admiral Ziemers departure is deeply alarming," Congressman Ami Bera (D-CA) said in May 2018. "Expertise like his is critical in avoiding large outbreaks." Beth Cameron, who served on the National Security Council in the Obama administration, said that Ziemer's ouster was a major loss for health security, biodefense, and pandemic preparedness and noted that it "is unclear in his absence who at the White House would be in charge of a pandemic."
John Bolton, who was serving as Trump's National Security Adviser at the time, did not just remove Ziemer. He decided to eliminate the position, and "the NSCs entire global health security unit." Bolton also forced out Tom Bossert, a highly regarded expert who was Ziemer's counterpart at the Department of Homeland Security. "Neither the NSC nor DHS epidemic teams have been replaced," Foreign Policy reported in January.
Trump slashed funding for the CDC's epidemic prevention activities, forcing the agency to end its work "in 39 out of 49 countries because money is running out" in 2018. The program, which started in 2014, was designed to "help countries prevent infectious-disease threats from becoming epidemics." Among the countries no longer included: China.
Trump has also tried to decimate funding for the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, which is tasked with fighting the spread of disease. Congress, however, has refused to comply. So the Trump administration has simply let the group slowly atrophy, failing to replace members who quit or retire. "
BigmanPigman
(51,644 posts)except his worthless enablers. We all saw this coming. We knew, we knew.....
PatSeg
(47,675 posts)Reckless, incompetent, and dangerous.
dchill
(38,569 posts)procon
(15,805 posts)I can't imagine anyone as self-serving as Trump who would place the whole country at risk to feed his ego.
Woodycall
(259 posts)SunSeeker
(51,755 posts)Woodycall
(259 posts)but that is the lesson, and the arc, of history.
Chainfire
(17,671 posts)But if the stock market continues to slide, that might.