I remember reading about how Bush 2 was kind of paranoid about a pandemic and had plans made while in office.
And that during the handover to Obama it was one of the things Bush told Obama to not ignore for the safety of the country.
The admin after Obama ignored everything.
[Insert Archer gif of “do you want ants? Because that’s how you get ants.” Bonus if “ants” marked out for “pandemic”]
Anyway, I think about this a lot. Especially with the CDC gutted and measles outbreaks popping up. And now the Andes hantavirus strain.
I mean, kinda, with the exception of countries like the USSR and whatnot. It was one of those “US is the world superpower” things. Obviously that’s not a good thing lately (if it ever was, which I won’t opine on), but it’s true. That’s why, for example, the only places left in the world with samples of smallpox are one lab in Russia and a CDC-run lab here in the US (not too far from where I used to live, actually).
They all relied on the CDC’s lead, and Trump fucked the CDC.
There were plans like that, but Trump fired the people who made them in 2018.
I remember reading about how Bush 2 was kind of paranoid about a pandemic and had plans made while in office. And that during the handover to Obama it was one of the things Bush told Obama to not ignore for the safety of the country. The admin after Obama ignored everything.
[Insert Archer gif of “do you want ants? Because that’s how you get ants.” Bonus if “ants” marked out for “pandemic”]
Anyway, I think about this a lot. Especially with the CDC gutted and measles outbreaks popping up. And now the Andes hantavirus strain.
Bush may have been an idiot about a bunch of things but at least he was smart in some places.
Trump has just been an idiot in every thing.
For all his faults Dubs did seem to understand that millions of people getting sick is a bad
The entire world relied on the US’s CDC? I would think other countries would have their own plans.
I mean, kinda, with the exception of countries like the USSR and whatnot. It was one of those “US is the world superpower” things. Obviously that’s not a good thing lately (if it ever was, which I won’t opine on), but it’s true. That’s why, for example, the only places left in the world with samples of smallpox are one lab in Russia and a CDC-run lab here in the US (not too far from where I used to live, actually).
Inherently there should be nothing wrong with one country having a reliable and effective system in place that everyone else relies on.
The problem is that it only takes one fucking idiot leader to ruin it.
The cdc after bush and Obama was extremely competent and reliable. It was perfectly reasonable to rely on them.
The trump attacked.
Oh, you know, pandemic, plagues and shit have been kind of a recurring thing for centuries here in Europe. We’re kind of jaded.