Washington Post: Trump could help curb a potential pandemic. Instead, he has been silent.
Ronald A. Klain, former senior White House aide to both Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton and senior adviser to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign

“…[W]e are confronting [the 2018 flu outbreak] without a confirmed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with a number of states — with encouragement from the Trump administration — instituting work requirements for Medicaid coverage, which widens gaps in coverage, and, above all, with no leadership from the White House on the flu response. … How bad could [an influenza] pandemic be? 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the 1918 Spanish flu, which killed more than 600,000 Americans — more than World Wars I and II combined. … Our best defense against such a pandemic reaching our shores is an investment in global health security: stopping diseases overseas. … [A]n ‘America First’ mind-set toward health security is dangerous. Disengaging from the world not only turns our back on humanitarian needs abroad — it also increases the risk that those crises will reach our shores. … For a fraction of what the president wants to spend on his pointless barrier with Mexico, we could make ourselves infinitely safer from infectious diseases. The president could quickly close the leadership hole at CDC by nominating its senior career official, Anne Schuchat, to the top job. He could back plans for a Public Health Emergency Fund that both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have supported. He could put pandemic preparedness and response on his agenda for this year’s G-20 meeting in Buenos Aires…” (2/13).