Under Trump, America is less prepared for a coronavirus outbreak

[spanone]

Opinion by Chelsea Clinton and Devi Sridhar

(CNN)The coronavirus that emerged from Wuhan, China, last year is causing alarm across the world, with fear that this could become the next pandemic. Late last month, the World Health Organization declared the virus, named COVID-19, a "Public Health Emergency of International Concern" and urged an immediate international response.

It advised its member states to put in place national preparedness plans and procedures for identifying and responding to any COVID-19 cases that might present. The death toll of more than 2,600 people far exceeds that of the SARS outbreak nearly 17 years ago.

Unfortunately, President Donald Trump has taken actions that many doctors and experts agree will leave the US less prepared to respond to COVID-19. He has eliminated the position of Global Health Czar and has repeatedly proposed cuts important to global health funding -- thankfully that have failed to pass in Congress.

He's shown his antipathy toward addressing health emergencies like this one, most recently in his proposed 2021 budget for the Department of Health and Human Services, which would cut $3 billion from response and preparedness funds. We write this with long experience in global health and having looked closely at outbreak prevention and response in our book, "Governing Global Health: Who Runs the World and Why?"

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/24/opinions/trump-us-coronavirus-prepared-clinton-sridhar/index.html

[Iliyah]

1. K & R!

[moondust]

2. During the Vietnam War

I remember there were some crazy old hippies who sometimes casually speculated that the endless war might really be the establishment/deep state/whatever trying to "thin the population" of baby boomers because they were so numerous. Plus they were always protesting and not trusting anybody over 30 and not always wealthy and just not very adoring.