A pandemic plan was in place, but Trump abandoned it — and science
President Obama was bothered. It was the summer of 2009 and he was in a meeting at the White House to talk about preparations for an expected autumn outbreak of swine flu. Elbows on the table, he thumbed through the pages of a report on preparations for it.
“So,” he asked no one in particular, “if you guys are so smart, how come you’re still making this in eggs?” he asked, referring to the nearly century-old process for making vaccines in chicken eggs.
Those around the table erupted into laughter. The president’s quip was a moment of levity at an otherwise serious meeting.
The “smart guys” the president was jesting with were the members of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, or PCAST. Founded in 1990 by President George H. W. Bush, the council, administered by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), is an advisory group of scientists and engineers appointed by the president to augment the science advice he receives from other White House advisors, departments, and agencies.
In June 2009, the recently inaugurated Obama had given his PCAST advisors their first assignment: What does the president need to do to prepare for an influenza pandemic? Five weeks later, on Aug. 7, they gave him their answers at a meeting in the White House’s State Dining Room.
The story of this meeting and the ensuing eight years of science-informed policy making, which I have drawn from interviews with members of PCAST and internet archives of documents, show a president comfortable with having back-and-forth discussions with an assembly of the some of the nation’s top scientific minds. The president was committed to integrating science into his day-to-day decisions. One of those decisions was how to plan for and respond to the outbreak of a pandemic illness. [Continue reading…]