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Senior Trump administration officials said last year that the threat of a pandemic worried them

2020-04-04T01:45:28.547Z


Two senior Donald Trump administration officials mentioned last year that the threat of a pandemic was a matter of concern to them, undermining repeated claims by the president ...


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How Trump changed his stance on the coronavirus 3:24

(CNN) - Two senior officials in the Donald Trump government mentioned last year that the threat of a pandemic was a matter of concern to them, undermining the president's repeated claims that the coronavirus pandemic was an unforeseen problem.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Tim Morrison, then Special Assistant to the President and Chief Director of Weapons of Mass Destruction and Biodefense at the National Security Council, made the remarks at the Biodefense Summit in April 2019.

"Of course, when people ask: 'What is it that worries you and does not let you sleep at night in the field of biodefense?' A flu pandemic, of course. I think everyone in this room probably shares that concern, ”Azar said, before listing efforts to mitigate the impact of the flu outbreaks.

The Trump administration is under scrutiny for how it prepared for the coronavirus pandemic and for its slow response in providing assistance to states and cities with screening test kits and personal protective equipment. The 2019 summit, organized by the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to "discuss and solicit input on the implementation of the National Biodefense Strategy," offers information about early knowledge about the potential of a pandemic threat.

Transcripts of Azar and Morrison's comments at the summit, which have not been reported before, are available on the HHS website.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that no one predicted a pandemic crisis like the one caused by the coronavirus.

  • MIRA: Trump says there will be new recommendations on facial masks

"No one knew there would be a pandemic or an epidemic of this proportion," Trump said March 19 in comments from the Rose Garden. "No one has seen anything like this before." The crisis is "an unforeseen problem" that "came out of nowhere," said the president on March 6. "We have to solve a problem that, four weeks ago, nobody thought would be a problem," he said on March 11. "It is something no one expected," he said again on March 14. "No one would have thought that something like this could have happened," he added on March 26.

The White House defended the president's comments in a statement, saying he has shown "great commitment" to global health security.

"It is not inconsistent to recognize the threat posed by pandemics and position the government to respond, and then also to recognize that this is a new or never-before-seen virus that came out of nowhere and was initially covered up by the Chinese Communist Party," a senior government official told CNN.

The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment on Azar's observations.

At the coronavirus task force briefing this Friday, Trump noted that "he always knew that pandemics are one of the worst things that could happen," but he did not believe that Azar was specifically talking about the covid-19 outbreak. during the 2019 summit. Trump argued that Azar was referring to the "concept" of a pandemic that would not let him sleep at night.

"I heard about this for a long time, pandemics. You don't want pandemics, ”Trump said in response to a question by CNN's Jim Acosta about the KFile reports. "I don't think he was talking about a specific pandemic, he was talking about the threat of a pandemic that could occur. And it could happen. Most people thought that would not be the case, and most people did not understand the seriousness of it. "

Azar added that the government has been working for years to prepare for a pandemic.

"We knew about SARS, we knew about MERS, which were previous modifications of the coronavirus, none of which accomplished anything like what we are seeing today," Azar pointed out to Acosta in the briefing, "but that is why in four consecutive presidencies , including that of President Trump, there has been a great focus on preparing for a pandemic. "

At the 2019 summit, Azar also stated: “It is a fundamental rule of leadership to be accountable, which means choosing a leader, and that is a leadership lesson well understood by President Trump, who has a special interest not only in our national security, but also in preparation for biodefense in particular. ”

Morrison recounted during his speech that he prepared for his appearance at the conference by turning to "The Great Influenza," a book about the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.

"When people ask me why I'm really concerned, it's always what we're not thinking about," Morrison said. “For that we are not prepared as it should be. And when we were working on the Biodefense Strategy, we started to think a little bit about what we would probably face, what will come next? ”

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Morrison then described the impact of the 1918 pandemic, noting in stark numbers that it killed "more people than any other disease outbreak in human history."

"So when people ask me what keeps me from sleeping at night, it's questions like that," he added.

A presidential national security memorandum ordered in September 2018 put the HHS secretariat in charge of coordinating the National Biodefense Strategy across the government, including the White House National Security Council. In late January 2020, the White House created the coronavirus task force to be chaired by Secretary Azar. Almost a month later, the President appointed Vice President Mike Pence to be the new team leader.

Morrison, a former Republican staff member, left the Trump administration in October 2019. He testified in Trump's impeachment investigation last fall, and assured House of Representatives investigators that he was told that Trump wanted a senior Ukrainian official to announce an investigation that would politically assist the president before US security aid to Ukraine was delivered.

Morris is currently a member of the Hudson Institute, a conservative group of experts.

In an email sent to CNN, Morrison defended the Trump administration's preparations for a pandemic and strongly criticized China's handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

Morrison wrote that the Trump administration was "very active in drafting the strategy" to prepare for pandemics and "was already very committed to the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (which was ultimately defeated)."

Morrison also blamed the Chinese Communist Party for "working hard to conceal from the Chinese people and the world the origins of the virus and the extent of its spread, which cost the rest of the world months in response time and compromised WHO independence. . We hoped that the PCC had learned from its mistakes in 2003 during the SARS outbreak. Even now, nobody believes in the numbers revealed by the PCC. "

coronavirus

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2020-04-04

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