The Trump administration disbanded the “pandemic response” team, but some of the team members were reassigned to roles that included pandemic response
The Trump administration disbanded the “pandemic response” team, but some of the team members were reassigned to roles that included pandemic responseIn 2016, President Barack Obama expanded the National Security Council to include the Directorate of Global Health Security and Biodefense. The unit, which focused in large part on pandemic preparedness, was formed in response to criticism of how his administration handled the Ebola outbreak in 2014-15. In May 2018, under President Donald Trump's administration, former national security adviser John Bolton restructured Trump's National Security Council and disbanded the global health unit. Its former head, Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer, resigned from the administration and was not replaced. Though the unit was disbanded, not all members of the team left. Some moved to other units in the NSC, like those focused on weapons of mass destruction and international organizations, reported the Washington Post.
When Trump was asked whether closing the NSC global health unit slowed the U.S. response to the coronavorus, the president called it a “nasty” question because his administration had acted quickly and saved lives. “I don’t know anything about it,” Trump said. Earlier, when asked about it, he said: “This is something that you can never really think is going to happen.”
Copied!