Wuhan Coronavirus Could Test the Trump Administration’s Ability to Respond to a Crisis. Experts are Worried
Experts say the coronavirus may be coming at a time when the administration is unprepared. Several high-level health officials have left the administration in the last few years and significant vacancies remain.
Trump began his administration with Rear Admiral Timothy Ziemer, a long-time official who had served under President George W. Bush and Barack Obama, leading a global health security team on the White House National Security Council. But Ziemer left in 2018, and . White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert, who had called for a strong biodefense strategy to deal with pandemics and other attacks, also left in 2018., which authorizes programs in HHS that develop responses to threats such as pandemics or bioterrorist attacks, was allowed to lapse for nine months. It expired in September 2018 and was not reauthorized until June 2019.
But other aspects raised red flags. Rebecca Katz, director of Georgetown’s Center for Global Health Science and Security, noted that the task force was “missing some major players in the world of global health security”: there is no one from the Department of Defense, the U.S. Agency for International Development or the Department of Agriculture.
Some experts also told TIME they worried that Azar, who is heading the task force, may struggle to make himself heard within an administration known for its personnel fights, rapid turnover, and fiefdoms. While the Secretary is broadly respected among health experts, he has reportedly found himself enmeshed in
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