Analysis: Amid America’s biggest crisis in generations, the president’s actions have often complicated problems rather than resolved them.
Trump’s HHS Secretary said in 2019 that a coming pandemic kept him up at night, In early January, Azar tried to meet with Trump to warn him. It took two weeks to schedule a meeting and then Trump only wanted to talk about vaping. A month later he was still comparing it to the flu https://t.co/EU4SK022I1
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) April 5, 2020
The U.S. had a program – PREDICT – that identified lethal viruses abroad to prevent their spread to the U.S..
It had found 1,200 viruses (and 160 coronaviruses) in 10 years.
It was actively working in China.
Two months before the Wuhan outbreak, Trump shut the program down.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) April 5, 2020