In 2018, Trump effectively dismantled the Obama-era global health security system that had been recommended by Ron Klain, Vice President Joe Biden’s chief of staff. The objective—to understand how viruses move beyond borders and to prepare a communications and response strategy for transnational health crises—had its genesis in the nation’s multilateral engagement on the Ebola virus. Swift, worldwide action had not only accelerated treatments to countries facing infection, it slowed transmission to other nations, including the United States. Trump’s shortsighted decision, while devastating in
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