The Coronavirus: What Would Joe Biden Do?

When Trump’s America is better prepared than any other country.

Many Democrats and much of the media claim that President Donald Trump has mishandled and continues to mishandle the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

But a Johns Hopkins study found the United States is better prepared for a pandemic than any other country. Released in October 2019, the Global Health Security Index examined 195 countries on their preparedness and ability to handle an epidemic or pandemic. It found: "No country is fully prepared for epidemics or pandemics, and every country has important gaps to address."

No, Trump did not cut funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among those pushing this untruth is former Vice President Joe Biden, who said, "They've cut the funding for the CDC." Trump proposed a CDC cut, but Congress disagreed. FactCheck.org wrote: "It's misleading at best to claim Trump 'slashed funding,' when his proposals haven't taken effect. For instance, Trump's fiscal 2020 budget proposal would have reduced CDC funding by $750.6 million, compared with what was enacted for fiscal 2019. ... But Congress passed, and Trump signed, a budget that increased CDC funding by $420 million."

Nor is it true that Trump "fired" the head of a pandemic response team that the president allegedly dissolved. Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg claimed: "And one of the great problems today, you read about the virus, what's really happening here is the president fired the pandemic specialist in this country two years ago. So there's nobody here to figure out what the hell we should be doing." Rear Adm. R. Timothy Ziemer, to whom Bloomberg referred, was the senior director of the National Security Council's Office of Global Health Security and Biodefense. About Ziemer, FactCheck.org said: "Just because Ziemer's position was discontinued does not mean everyone who was part of the team was fired or that all of the functions of the directorate ceased. According to reporting by the Atlantic and the Washington Post, some team members were shifted to other groups, and others took over some of Ziemer's duties. An NSC spokesman at the time said that the administration 'remains committed to global health, global health security and biodefense, and will continue to address these issues with the same resolve under the new structure.'" Ziemer is now senior deputy assistant administrator at the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Read the rest from Larry Elder HERE.

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