Do I trust Trump to say the right things to the public? Hell no! No one MAKES Trump look bad except Trump. He is ALWAYS conflicted between what is politically correct for his image, including the bounces on Wall Street and reality. He is an untrustworthy partner everywhere. Show me one place where his image does not circumvent reality.
February 25, 2020
Fears of a pandemic come (click here) after the Trump administration spent the past several years gutting the very government programs that are tasked with combatting such a crisis.
In 2018, for instance, the CDC cut 80% of its efforts to prevent global disease outbreaks because it was running out of money. Ultimately, the department went from working in 49 countries to just 10.
Here are some other actions the Trump administration undertook to dismantle government-spending programs related to fighting the spread of global diseases, according to Foreign Policy:
- Shutting down the entire global-health-security unit of the National Security Council.
- Eliminating the US government's $30 million Complex Crises Fund.
The Complex Crises Fund (CCF) (click here) prevents and responds to emerging or unforeseen crises by focusing on countries or regions that demonstrate a high or escalating risk of conflict, instability, or unanticipated opportunity for progress in fragile democracies. CCF provides global, flexible funding, enabling the United States to respond outside of planned programming.
- Reducing national health spending by $15 billion.
- Consistently attacking Mark Green, (click here) the director of the US Agency for International Development. Also known as USAID.
The CDC is working on a new test to screen for the coronavirus, but according to New York magazine, problems with the test's development resulted in only three out of 100 public-health labs being equipped to screen for the virus. Moreover, each test costs as much as $250, and the Health and Human Services Department is already running out of money to finance an adequate response to the outbreak.
The Trump administration recently requested $2.5 billion in emergency funds — $1.25 billion in new funding and $1.25 billion to be diverted from other federal programs — to aid in preparing and responding to coronavirus cases in the US....
I have to add, there is real reason to expect further investigation into the virus itself. It is highly contagious and surprisingly so, including educated health care workers. The actual virus itself has to be understood to assist in containment. Someone within the international health infrastructure may already have that information, it might be some time before it actually shows in the public records.
