Trump & Bolton gutted the White House Epidemic Response team

Rear Adm. R. Timothy Ziemer was the Trump administration’s senior director for global health security and biodefense at the National Security Council. Ziemer was appointed by President Obama. He left that in early May as part of a reorganization under national security adviser John Bolton.

In a WaPo piece on May 10, 2018, Lina Sun reported this:

The top White House official responsible for leading the U.S. response in the event of a deadly pandemic has left the administration, and the global health security team he oversaw has been disbanded under a reorganization by national security adviser John Bolton.

The abrupt departure of Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer from the National Security Council means no senior administration official is now focused solely on global health security. Ziemer’s departure, along with the breakup of his team, comes at a time when many experts say the country is already underprepared for the increasing risks of a pandemic or bioterrorism attack.

Ziemer’s last day was Tuesday, the same day a new Ebola outbreak was declared in Congo. He is not being replaced.

When the next pandemic occurs (and make no mistake, it will) and the federal government is unable to respond in a coordinated and effective fashion to protect the lives of US citizens and others, this decision by John Bolton and Donald Trump will be why. https://t.co/iMSzopSRaI

— Stephen Schwartz (@AtomicAnalyst) May 10, 2018

And the president claimed, “We’re having to fix a problem that four weeks ago nobody thought would be a problem.” Seriously!