> The problem with this thesis that the CDC has been "politicized" is that the level of precaution merited in the face of a novel virus is very much a question

> The problem with this thesis that the CDC has been "politicized" is that the level of precaution merited in the face of a novel virus is very much a question of policy, not science. "Obama team left pandemic playbook for Trump administration, officials confirm" * https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/obama-team-left-pandemic-playbook-for-trump-administration-officials-confirm https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/obama-team-left-pandemic... Here it is: * https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6819268/Pandemic-Playbook.pdf https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6819268/Pandemic-... Page 9 explicitly names "Coronaviruses" as a Tier 1 concern. The transition team had a tabletop wargames / exercises on a pandemic: * https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/16/trump-inauguration-warning-scenario-pandemic-132797 https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/16/trump-inauguration-... See also: > The Trump administration cut staff by more than two-thirds at a key U.S. public health agency operating inside China, as part of a larger rollback of U.S.-funded health and science experts on the ground there leading up to the coronavirus outbreak, Reuters has learned. > Most of the reductions were made at the Beijing office of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and occurred over the past two years, according to public CDC documents viewed by Reuters and interviews with four people familiar with the drawdown. * https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-cdc-exclusiv-idUSKBN21C3N5 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-... It should be noted that pandemic preparation was started by Bush43: * https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1283304/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1283304/ Obama carried things forward during his eight years.