Just a few months into the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the public learned something unsettling about Donald Trump and his team: The Obama administration had prepared a document called the “Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents” — unofficially known as “the pandemic playbook” — and left it as a guide to follow.
The Republican administration was briefed on the document during Trump’s first year in the White House, but the playbook was, as Politico reported, “thrown onto a shelf” and forgotten about.
In case that weren’t quite enough, Barack Obama’s team also prepared a presentation for the incoming GOP operation during the postelection transition process in early 2017, specifically focused on how the federal government would have to respond in the event of a deadly viral outbreak. This went largely ignored, too.
Trump’s second term offered an opportunity to learn from those mistakes. It doesn’t appear to be going well, however. NOTUS reported:
Since dismantling the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, or OPPR, the Trump administration has been tested by a record-breaking measles outbreak, a cruise-ship hantavirus outbreak, an ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and a lettuce-dwelling parasite that sickened thousands.
The White House recently staffed the office, which at its peak in 2024 had 15 employees, with just one health official, along with a second biosecurity specialist at the National Security Council. Former government health officials say that is far from where the office needs to be to effectively combat dangerous pathogens.
The White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy might not be an especially high-profile office, but it was created with bipartisan support in 2022 to help ensure that the United States is prepared for the next crisis. As of last year, however, the OPPR had a staff of literally zero people.
Now, it has two employees, which seems like a step in the right direction, except a) two really isn’t much; and b) one is Sara Brenner, a former Food and Drug Administration official, who was tapped earlier this month to lead the OPPR.
The New Republic described Brenner as “a vaccine skeptic and self-described ‘MAHA mom.’”
While MS NOW hasn’t independently verified the NOTUS report, the White House made no effort to push back against it. On the contrary, a White House spokesperson appeared eager to try to defend the new status quo, saying in a statement that the National Security Council, Homeland Security Council and Domestic Policy Council are “together handling pandemic preparedness functions to fully account for the global and domestic needs in close partnership with the agencies.”
In other words, the OPPR might have just two people, but there’s no cause for concern because there are other agencies and personnel picking up the slack.
Perhaps, but the whole point of having an Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response is to focus on a specific threat. The National Security Council, Homeland Security Council and Domestic Policy Council have capable staffers, but they also have broad remits. What Team Trump should’ve learned six years ago is that there’s a benefit to having qualified people tackling pandemic preparedness specifically.
Byron Cohen, a former adviser to OPPR, told NOTUS, “There is a tremendous amount of work to be done.” While he expressed confidence in the office’s two employees, Cohen added, “Those two individuals only have so much time in the day, and they deserve a full staff to help them carry out their mission.”
Whether they’ll eventually get a full staff remains to be seen. Watch this space.
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