Maddow Blog | Unlearned lessons: Trump plans to close pandemic preparedness office

Given the federal difficulties in responding to the Covid pandemic, it didn’t come as too great of a surprise when President Joe Biden created a White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy. Its remit was obvious: Officials in this office would be responsible for monitoring future crises and helping coordinate federal responses.

Unfortunately, the office didn’t have to wait too long before confronting an important challenge. Politico reported this week on the federal response to the burgeoning bird flu threat.

Politico’s report added that senior pandemic preparedness officials recognize that the H5N1 avian flu outbreak “represents the first true test” for the pandemic preparedness office.

Time will tell, of course, how well the administration’s team responds to this test, but in the meantime, it appears Donald Trump is already prepared to shutter the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy if he’s elected to a second term.

When the former president sat down with Time magazine’s Eric Cortellessa, the reporter brought up the office and asked the Republican whether he’d disband it. Trump replied, “Well, [Biden] wants to spend a lot of money on something that you don’t know if it’s gonna be 100 years or 50 years or 25 years. And it’s just a way of giving out pork.”

As for the office’s future, the presumptive GOP nominee went on to say that he’d “probably” close the pandemic preparedness office, adding, “Yeah, I think I would. ... I think it sounds good politically, but I think it’s a very expensive solution to something that won’t work.”

Or put another way, the fate of the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy will likely be determined by the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.

Let’s not forget that in 2018, the Trump administration thought it’d be a good idea to dismantle a National Security Council directorate at the White House charged with preparing for pandemics.

Not long after the Covid crisis began in earnest in the United States, the then-president said he didn’t think he’d need a global health security team.

After having four years to reflect on this, Trump appears to have learned very few lessons from the experience.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com