1/ The aircraft carrier Teddy Roosevelt couldn't protect us from a virus. Instead, the virus took the massive carrier out of service.

Someday, we'll replace the Roosevelt.

The cost of that one new ship will be more than our entire annual anti-pandemic budget.

2/ It's not that we lack the resources to protect America from pandemic disease. It's just that we don't align our spending to the actual threats that America faces today.

Our non-HIV global health budget is about $6B.

This year the Department of Defense will spend $738B.

3/ Russia and China are bigger threats than ever before. We shouldn't stand down in the fight against major powers and non-state adversaries.

But are conventional military actors really 100x more dangerous than disease?

The answer, of course, is staring us in the face today.

4/ Here's a short piece outlining the first steps we can take to stand up this kind of global anti-pandemic infrastructure.

The next pandemic won't wait for us to act. Congress needs to consider these changes now - so they can be in the 2020/2021 budget. https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/30/coronavirus-trump-us-government-must-prepare-now-for-the-next-pandemic/