Second, did it not occur to you the the CD was overwhelmed with requests to process ?
Why was no other country overwhelmed? Why were so unprepared?
Trump Struggles to Explain Why He Disbanded The U.S. Pandemic Response Unit
Eck. One more turd to plop in the simmering stew of Trump’s incompetence, evidencing how careless, unprepared, and unworthy Trump is to be POTUS.
NBC News had a good report on this recently, noting that the president's decision "to downsize the White House national security staff -- and eliminate jobs addressing global pandemics -- is likely to hamper the U.S. government's response to the coronavirus."
The truth is probably “because Obama,” who with VP Biden established the unit as part of the National Security Council, able to respond in the U.S. and work in concert with governments around the world to curb the spread of deadly diseases. Ebola and SARS outbreaks made it apparent we needed to be prepared for viral contagion that would more than likely arrive on our shores in the future.
The future arrived.
And recall that he’s already slashed funding and proposed another cut to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), America’s preeminent authority on disease and pandemics; America’s front line against this type of public health threat.
When first asked why he disbanded the pandemic response team in 2018 he responded:
"I'm a business person," he explained two weeks ago in response to a similar question. "I don't like having thousands of people around when you don't need them. When we need them, we can get them back very quickly."
Except you can’t reassemble a team like that ‘very quickly.’ One more check mark in the long column of items on the “Trump is clueless about ...’ list. This one evidencing how utterly devoid of understanding and unconcerned he is about how the executive branch should work.
Not to mention his complete disregard as president in fulfilling his duty to protect American lives when cameras aren’t rolling and he can pretend to have it all under control.
We don’t yet know the extent of contagion because we haven’t had enough tests to go around. And the Trump administration wouldn’t allow independent testing.
His ego-driven dysfunction has put the health of all Americans in jeopardy.
As the threat to the U.S. has grown in the days following his first answer, he spewed a word salad of a different excuse when pressed again by a reporter about his 2018 decision to disband the pandemic response team we sure could have used right about now:
"I just think this is something, Peter, that you can never really think is going to happen. You know, who -- I've heard all about, 'This could be...' -- you know, 'This could be a big deal,' from before it happened. You know, this -- something like this could happen.... Who would have thought? Look, how long ago is it? Six, seven, eight weeks ago -- who would have thought we would even be having the subject? ... You never really know when something like this is going to strike and what it's going to be."
So, let’s get this straight: he disbanded the NSC pandemic response unit because he never realized America might need it one day (and “de-Obamacizing, no doubt).
Hm. Does having a military ‘just in case’ there’s an attack on the U.S., or the presidential bunker he can retreat to ‘just in case’ ring a bell? Helllllllo?
It’s clear the concept of ‘insurance’ is foreign to him.
We need to get rid of this uncaring moron in November.
There is so much at stake. The dysfunction is putting us all in jeopardy now.
The fact is Coronavirus is a NEW virus and you don't stock thousands of test kits for something that didn't exist until late Dec.
And you don't produce a test kit for a new virus overnight!
As of Monday night, the number of confirmed cases in the U.S. surpassed 750 across more than 30 states and the District of Columbia. The U.S. death toll rose to 26, with 22 in Washington and two each in California and Florida.
CDC developed and shipped testing kits in early February to state and local public health labs to begin testing for coronavirus. But a test kit glitch left state and local public health labs unable to confirm the test results. The flaw delayed rapid testing among state and local labs.
Private labs and academic hospitals didn’t get the green light to develop and use their own diagnostics until several weeks later. That delayed testing and left even patients with symptoms of, or exposure to COVID-19 unable to get tested.
The CDC said 78 public health labs in 50 states were testing for the virus as of Monday. The agency also relaxed testing guidelines to allow more people to get tested. Both academic labs and large private lab testing companies such as LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics are rolling out coronavirus tests after receiving FDA authorization.
Ben Pinsky, medical director of the Clinical Virology Laboratory for Stanford Health Care and Stanford Children’s Health, said its lab was up and running in less than a month and "we're working on ramping up capacity as fast as we can." Stanford is now doing the testing for Stanford Medical Center, as well as the University of California San Francisco's hospital and Kaiser Permanente.
Pinsky said he became concerned about the number of cases in China in late January and started evaluating the test his lab is using in early February. They were developing the test while they were in the process of applying to the FDA for permission to test, but it was still a time consuming process. Components were ordered from different suppliers, assembled and validated before they could be used.
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
