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Trump says the coronavirus came “out of nowhere.” But last year, the DNI WARNED that we were vulnerable to a pandemic “that could lead to massive rates of death and disability, severely affect the world economy, strain international resources...” 
https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/2019-ATA-SFR---SSCI.pdf
https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/2019-ATA-SFR---SSCI.pdf
Despite this clear warning from our Intelligence Community, the Trump administration seems to have done little to prepare, and even sought to cut 80 percent of our epidemic prevention resources across the globe. This article is from 2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/02/01/cdc-to-cut-by-80-percent-efforts-to-prevent-global-disease-outbreak/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/02/01/cdc-to-cut-by-80-percent-efforts-to-prevent-global-disease-outbreak/
The Trump administration also left unfilled the pandemic response directorate at the National Security Council, which was created and designed specifically to prepare for the very crisis we now confront—and coordinate the national response. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/05/10/top-white-house-official-in-charge-of-pandemic-response-exits-abruptly/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/05/10/top-white-house-official-in-charge-of-pandemic-response-exits-abruptly/
The DNI’s “Worldwide Threat Assessment” is one of the most important documents produced by the Intelligence Community each year. Last year’s report (cited above) was prescient, but ignored. Worse, Trump told its authors they were “naive.” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/30/us/politics/trump-intelligence-agencies.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/30/us/politics/trump-intelligence-agencies.html
This year, the threat assessment is bottled up, for reasons nobody can explain. (Even as our country faces what may be an unprecedented public health emergency.) The most plausible explanation is that Trump doesn’t like what it says. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/15/intel-agencies-threats-hearing-trump-099494
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/15/intel-agencies-threats-hearing-trump-099494
Our national security and public health depend on having professionals and experts in key posts across the federal government, empowered from the top to tell the truth at all times no matter how unpleasant. We may be about to see why this really matters.
