Coronavirus: What needs to happen next – By Sam Baker (Axios) / Jan 30 2020
The U.S. should be preparing for the worst as the Chinese coronavirus spreads, and somebody at the White House needs to be in charge of coordinating that effort, public health experts say.
The big picture: The virus may never become a crisis here, but experts say the responsible thing right now is to plan for the worst and hope that those plans aren’t needed.
The catch: The National Security Council official who would have been in charge of leading the response to a pandemic left in 2018, and now no one is around to do the job.
- “They need to put someone at the White House in charge,” Ron Klain, who served as then-President Obama’s “Ebola czar,” said this week on Axios’ Pro Rata podcast.
- Containing and combating a viral outbreak involves border patrol and national security officials; public health agencies at the federal, state and local levels; public and private vaccine researchers; and coordinating with individual hospitals.
- It makes sense to put one person in charge of coordinating all of that, Klain said.
Where it stands: There have only been five confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the U.S., and there are still big unanswered questions about it.
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