If you are wondering why we have a lagging infrastructure to combat the #COVID19 pandemic, it is because Trump fired the NSC's Global Health Security team in 2018 and never replaced them. Sharing this @JuddLegum piece more than once and highlight key lines popular.info/p/unprepared
In 2018, the Trump admin 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." 
Beth Cameron, who served on the NSC 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 NSC’s entire global health security unit."
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. washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-h…
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.
I'd also highly recommend @Laurie_Garrett's piece for @ForeignPolicy on how especially worrying it is that the "government has intentionally rendered itself incapable." foreignpolicy.com/2020/01/31/cor…
I do not relish making this thread political. I understand that past mismanagement cannot be undone. But, I pray that literally everything possible is done now (costs be damned) to interrupt transmission and develop a robust response. Hundreds of thousands of lives are at stake.
Everything outlined above may be what is prompting the admin to classify top-level meetings discussing the pandemic, but once again this hamstrings the response because many health experts who lack security clearance cannot attend these meetings. reuters.com/article/us-hea…
Today @SenSherrodBrown pressed this issue on Capitol Hill.
I am grateful that @Yamiche Alcindor took the gloves off when she pressed Trump today on his 2018 gutting of the NSC's pandemic unit. Trump calls her question "nasty." Mark this shameful moment, because should things turn full south it will be his undoing.
