I claimed yesterday that Trump and the Tea Party cut the CDC. But Former CDC Director, Dr Tom Frieden, assured us on the Fareed Zacharia Sunday morning show that the experts and expert managers of the CDC are still in place. That is good news.
It is true that Trump's budgets have and do try to cut funding to the CDC but Congress apparently has stopped that from happening. Good for them!
It is also unfortunately true that Rear Admiral Timothy Zeimer and his team left the White House on the National Security Council after Bolton cut their budget and influence. That White House team was in charge of executive leadership to respond to pandemics and was never replaced. We pay a big price for that now.
Dr. Freiden agreed that critical early responses to the pandemic were not taken, and that in the past America had taken the lead in fighting other outbreaks of pandemic potential diseases. In the past, those were stopped.
Also, I was apparently wrong about China's response, as Dr Friedan said China slowed the spread by isolating millions in their homes for a month to increase the social distancing and reduce the spread of the virus.
He repeated that science does not know if this virus is seasonal, or can re-emerge violently after a pause. This is a new virus. And it is not known. What we think we know are mostly just pretty good guesses for now.
