Over the past three years the administration has weakened the offices in charge of preparing for and preventing this kind of outbreak.

…It has slashed funding for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its infectious disease research. For fiscal year 2020, Trump proposed cutting the CDC budget by US$1.3 billion, nearly 20% below the 2019 level.

…Every year since taking office, Trump has asked for deep cuts into research on emerging diseases – including the CDC’s small center on emerging and “zoonotic” infectious diseases.

…It manages laboratory, epidemiologic, analytic and prevention programs, and collaborates with state and local health departments, other federal government agencies, industry and foreign ministries of health.

In 2018, Trump tried to cut $65 million from this budget – a 10% reduction. In 2019, he sought a 19% reduction. For 2020, he proposed to cut federal spending on emerging infectious and zoonotic diseases by 20%. This would mean spending $100 million less in 2020 to study how such diseases infect humans than the U.S. did just two years ago.

…The overall level of appropriations for relevant CDC programs is still 10% below what the U.S. spent in 2016.

…in 2018 the administration disbanded its own global health security team, which was supposed to make the U.S. more resilient to the threat of epidemics. 

…[The Trump administration] eliminated the National Security Council’s global health security and biodefense directorate, and reshuffled its team of world-class infectious disease experts. In response, two highly respected leaders in the field – Rear Admiral Tim Ziemer, the NSC’s senior director for global health security and biodefense, and Homeland Security adviser Tom Bossert – left the White House.

…Containing the first major Ebola epidemic in 2014-2016, which killed 11,000 people in West Africa, required an enormous global effort. Only 11 patients were treated for Ebola in the U.S., but that was because President Obama took the threat seriously, appointing an “Ebola czar” to coordinate U.S. preparedness and assistance.

The Trump administration has made the US less ready for infectious disease outbreaks like coronavirus

hmmm

His full budget proposal for the 2018 fiscal year requests that billions of dollars be slashed from the agencies tasked with funding and conducting research that drives innovation and keeps Americans healthy and safe.

…Trump intends to cut nearly $5.8 billion in funding from the National Institutes of Health — about 18 percent of the agency’s total budget. It also cuts hundreds of millions of dollars from infectious disease programs at the CDC, and an additional $841 million from the National Science Foundation, which funds basic scientific research.

… The budget proposal calls for $333 million in cuts to three CDC programs aimed at curbing the spread of infectious diseases.

…An additional $136 million in cuts for the CDC Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response — about 10 percent of the office’s budget. This is the CDC office that responds to public health emergencies like outbreaks, epidemics, or “chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats.”

An 18 percent cut of $76.3 million to the CDC’s Center for Global Health, which coordinates international public health efforts aimed at eradicating infectious and chronic diseases worldwide.

…Apparently the Trump administration doesn’t believe in protecting American jobs when they’re science jobs. 

Here’s Trump’s plan to destroy the US science budget – The Verge

Aggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggh!

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recently lost hundreds of millions of dollars in funding cuts, including a $750 million cut in December. On Friday, President Trump signed a bill that slashed $1.35 billion from its Prevention and Public Health Fund over the next 10 years.

…December’s tax reform law stripped $750 million dollars from the program, moving that money to the childhood Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, instead. And this week, President Trump signed a bill cutting $1.35 billion from the PPHF over the next 10 years. In addition, funding is not being renewed for global health initiatives which monitor outbreaks overseas[emphasis: Peanut Gallery]

…[PPHF is] a program to promote public health and also keep public and private healthcare costs from rising.

…So in terms of tackling Ebola, there was a supplemental aid package that was passed to try to help build infrastructure in countries to tamp down the outbreak and actually prevent future outbreaks. And so now, what’s happening with cutting that funding, is that it’s actually creating more of a risk in the future. If there’s another outbreak that we don’t have that infrastructure to prevent the outbreak from spreading.[emphasis: Peanut Gallery]

…[Question:] If the PPHF goes away. How much of the overall CDC budget is it?

…[Answer] It’s 12 percent of the CDC budget. So in terms of the fund itself I think in 2017 the fund was allocated about $931 million and about $891 million of that went to the CDC for preventive programs.

How will CDC cuts affect health programs abroad and at home? | PBS NewsHour Weekend

sigh…

Trump’s 2021 budget request ….proposed cutting Health and Human Services funding by $9.5 billion, including a 15 percent cut of $1.2 billion to the CDC and a $35 million decrease to the Infectious Diseases Rapid Response Reserve Fund’s annual contribution.

Trump budget chief holds firm on CDC cuts amid virus outbreak | TheHill

hmmm