In 2018, Trump Disbanded the NSC Team Focused Solely on Global Health Security...

Back in May of 2018, the Trump Administration pushed out the White House official "responsible for leading the U.S. response in the event of a deadly pandemic...", Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer from the National Security Council.  Ziemer was not alone.  The global health security team overseen by him was also disbanded.

The Trump Administration called it a "reorganization".  But, none of these extremely important positions were ever re-staffed.

Around that time, "... Luciana Borio, director of medical and biodefense preparedness at the NSC (National Security Council), spoke at a symposium at Emory University to mark the 100th anniversary of the 1918 influenza pandemic. That event killed an estimated 50 million to 100 million people worldwide:

“The threat of pandemic flu is the number one health security concern,” she told the audience.  “Are we ready to respond?  I fear the answer is no.”"

Not surprisingly, Director Borio was correct.

Think of the federal government as an octopus.  It has numerous tentacles (agencies/departments).  Each tentacle functions independently of the others, but all of them are working for the common good.

By removing Adm. Ziemer and disbanding his team, the Trump administration completely and abruptly amputated the tentacle that that was in charge of monitoring, identifying, responding to, and preventing the outbreak of global pandemics.

This was a National Security level team.

Disbanding it was myopic, irresponsible, and put national security and public health under immediate threat.

The global COVID-19 pandemic sweeping across the world, spreading across the USA, and touching virtually every American's life are the fatal fruits of the Trump Administration's labors.

Epidemiologists and other medical experts saw this situation coming.  They warned the Trump administration, repeatedly.  Their words fell on deaf ears, repeatedly.

And, just like Nero in Rome, Trump fiddled while America burned.

Top White House official in charge of pandemic response exits abruptly