![]() ![]() The document was originally overseen by Timothy Ziemer’s directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense within the National Security Council, a unit the Trump administration disbands in 2018 (see entry for May 8, 2018). The Trump administration does not follow many of the playbook’s suggested steps and recommended timelines. It also includes sample documents that can be used for intra-agency meetings. It includes questions to ask, agency counterparts to consult for answers to those questions, and the key decisions that must be made early and often. The playbook, published here, is designed to assist the government in a high-intensity and time-pressured pandemic response. “The plan we are executing now is a better fit, more detailed, and applies the relevant lessons learned from the playbook and the most recent Ebola epidemic in the to COVID-19.” “We are aware of the document, although it’s quite dated and has been superseded by strategic and operational biodefense policies published since,” an NSC official later states about the document in March 2020. Sometime in 2017: The Trump Administration is briefed on an Obama-era National Security Council Pandemic “playbook.” The brief is reportedly not adopted as an official Trump administration strategy. Michael Flynn ( awaiting criminal sentencing), Gary Cohn ( resigned), Katie Walsh ( resigned), and Rick Dearborn ( resigned). Mick Mulvaney, Linda McMahon ( resigned), Sean Spicer ( fired), Joe Hagin ( resigned), Joshua Pitcock ( resigned), Tom Bossert ( fired), KT McFarland ( resigned), Gen. Dan Coats ( fired), Andrew Puzder ( not confirmed), Dr. Ben Carson, Elaine Chao, Stephen Miller, Marc Short, Reince Priebus ( resigned), Rex Tillerson ( fired), Gen. Mike Pompeo, Wilbur Ross, Betsy DeVos, Dr. Trump administration attendees include: Steven Mnuchin, Rep. Key takeaways from the exercise include: (1) a collective understanding of the science and the disease must drive response decisions (2) days and even hours are paramount in order to build as much lead time as possible (3) a coordinated and unified national response and message is necessary and (4) “medical countermeasure strategy is key for success,” including social distancing and addressing shortages in ventilators and personal protective equipment. The transition documents, obtained by POLITICO, show that the purpose of the exercise is to familiarize the incoming team with “domestic incident management policy and practices” in the face of major crises. The outgoing Obama team runs the Trump transition team through a series of pandemic-scenarios. 13, 2017 : The joint Obama-Trump transition teams run an exercise for pandemic preparedness. If we have missed any key information, please notify us by sending an email to Jan. Readers can reach their own conclusions based on these publicly available facts. ![]() These lapses meant that the United States was ultimately forced to make more drastic economic sacrifices to catch up to the severity of the pandemic than would have otherwise been necessary. When it came time to minimize the loss of life and economic damage, the United States was unnecessarily underprepared, had sacrificed valuable time, and confronted the pandemic with a more mild response than public health experts recommended. The President and some of his closest senior officials also disseminated misinformation that left the public less safe and more vulnerable to discounting the severity of the pandemic. ![]() In response to COVID-19, the United States was slow to act at a time when each day of inaction mattered most–in terms of both the eventual public health harms as well as the severe economic costs. While some measures were put in place to prepare the United States for pandemic readiness, many more were dismantled since 2017. Several Trump administration officials raised strong concerns prior to the emergence of COVID-19 and raised alarms once the virus appeared within the United States. In our view, the timeline is clear: Like previous administrations, the Trump administration knew for years that a pandemic of this gravity was possible and imminently plausible. government’s preparation for a pandemic, tracking warning signals of COVID-19, and public and internal responses when the outbreak hit inside the United States. policy events related to the novel coronavirus pandemic. What follows is a comprehensive timeline of major U.S. Editor’s note: originally published on April 13, 2020, most recently updated on November 3, 2020. ![]()
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