Battling COVID-19
Editor, News-Register:
According to a news article I read several months ago in the local newspaper, President Trump dismantled the National Security Council office of Global Health Security and Bio-Defense, an office initiated by former President George W. Bush, expanded under former President Barack Obama, but dissolved under President Trump in 2018.
The purpose of this office, staffed by infectious disease specialists, was to be prepared for when, not if, a pandemic would strike.
This current COVID-19 pandemic, that has already killed close to 200,000 Americans, might have been prevented or less severe if this agency had been in place.
Also, the news article states that when President Trump was asked at a press conference whether closing the NSC global health unit slowed the U.S. response, Trump called it a “nasty” question, and praised his government’s response to the virus, then said, “I don’t know anything about it.”
Jean Woolums
St. Clairsville
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