Power & Security, Public Health, United States Coronavirus: Trump's mixed messages 'undermines public trust', experts say

Perry World House Director of Communications and Research John Gans is cited in this piece on the official U.S. response to coronavirus.

In 2018, when the White House declined to provide the agency with additional resources, the CDC downsized by 80% programs designed to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. The same year, the administration shuttered the National Security Council’s global health security unit.

Robert O’Brien, Trump’s national security adviser, has suggested such cuts were part of a “streamlining” of the NSC. But former officials have expressed concern.

“This is why you have a National Security Council,” former Pentagon speechwriter John Gans, who wrote a book about the NSC, told NBC News this week.

Experts told the Guardian public health funding issues predate the Trump administration.

Read more in The Guardian >>