Trump says he can bring in coronavirus experts quickly. The experts say it is not that simple.

[PA Democrat]

The White House official charged with leading the U.S. response to deadly pandemics left nearly two years ago as his global health security team was disbanded. Federal funding for preventing and mitigating the spread of infectious disease has been repeatedly threatened since President Trump’s election.

Despite the mounting threat of a coronavirus outbreak in the United States, Trump said he has no regrets about those actions and that expertise and resources can be quickly ramped up to meet the current needs.

Former federal officials and public-health experts argue that an effective response to a epidemiological crisis demands sustained planning and investment. While the administration’s response to coronavirus has been criticized in recent weeks as slow and disjointed, people in and outside the White House have warned for years that the nation is ill prepared for a dangerous pandemic.

“You build a fire department ahead of time. You don’t wait for a fire,” said Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “There is an underappreciation for the amount of time and resources required to build a prepared system.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/trump-says-he-can-bring-in-coronavirus-experts-quickly-the-experts-say-it-is-not-that-simple/2020/02/27/6ce214a6-5983-11ea-8753-73d96000faae_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_pandemiccuts-9pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

[Under The Radar]

1. "You build a fire department ahead of time. You don't wait for a fire,"

The quote of the year.

[RockRaven]

2. HE. WON'T. LISTEN. TO. EXPERTS. ANYWAY.

All his excuses and criticism-dodges are bullshit piles on top of bullshit.

Not only can you not build up that expertise at the drop of a hat, even if he had the BEST advice in the world fro a horde of experts in every imaginable field, he would ignore it in favor of whatever dumb shit his moron brain picked up watching FOXNews the night before.

[catrose]

3. Dunning-Kruger at its finest

[procon]

4. Trump's trying to run the government from a temp agency.

Prior to Trump, the US probably had the largest and most comprehensive government in the world. We probably were prepared for anything both here and across the globe. We had the reknown experts, the qualified professionals, the policies and procedures to deal with every sort of crisis.

Now, I dunno, not so much, yeah? Maybe there are specialized temp staffing agencies where Trump can rent public health specialists, research scientists and all the other professional staff necessary to restore some of the agencies that he poleaxed. Maybe he can even rent some of the experts that he already fired. Wonder what's cheaper; by the day or week?

[MissB]

5. I'm sure there are plenty of college seniors that

need a job, so yeah.

[Ilsa]

6. Yes, let's see how quickly those

Management and Sports Management majors get up to speed on management of a pandemic.

[MissB]

7. Yep. I'm sure they will just hit the ground running

of course.

[Under The Radar]

8. Ok but they don't work between Friday and Monday

[dove2]

9. questions journalist should ask Trump

There is a lot of misinformation about coronavirus coming from uninformed sources, including the White House. It also seems that reporters are missing some of the larger questions about the virus. As a former Captain in the US Public Health Service (USPHS), I wonder why no one is asking:

• Why VP Pence is in charge of managing the response to coronavirus instead of the US Surgeon General, who is the highest authority in the country on public health issues.
• Why President Trump’s statement that he can simply “hire more doctors” has gone unchallenged by the media; the USPHS has 6,700 trained doctors, nurses, and pharmacologists that can be immediately assigned to handle coronavirus by order of the President. Does Trump not know this?
• Why no reporter has asked if Trump will reinstate the USPHS Inactive Reserve; as many as 60,000 trained health professionals in the Inactive Reserve were inadvertently eliminated when the Affordable Care Act took effect. Those professionals would have provided additional aid in handling the crisis.